By Benjamin Rothstein

DOVER – In Capital School District’s uphill battle to improve student behavior and reduce violence in their schools, it is often brought up that many of these issues start at home.

“Parents are their children’s first teachers. They know more about their children and how they learn than we will ever know,” said Superintendent Vilicia Cade at the district’s inaugural parent summit, an event started to help bridge the gap between it and its parents.

“We may have the technical training and the professional words and terminology, but our parents have the commitment, the investment and they are invested in their children’s wellbeing,” she continued.

The event ran Saturday at William Henry Middle School, giving attendees the opportunity to visit three of any 10 sessions, which had topics like “Keeping Kids Safe on Social Media” and transitioning a student to a new type of school, separated into kindergarten, middle school, and high school.

Attendees also received a folder bursting at the seams with information on various types of resources available to students and families. These came in the form of contact information or tips for various types of social services, like housing assistance, medical assistance and the Capital Community Center.

The event kicked off with words from Dr. Cade, who stressed the importance of these resources.

“It is important that, before we can really get (to) educating a kid, we’ve got to remove all those non-academic barriers,” said Dr. Cade. “A hungry kid is not interested in learning. A kid that’s in crisis is not interested in learning. But what we know, is that a kid in crisis is typically a family in crisis.”

The keynote speaker at the event was founder of the I AM Academy, Dr. Valeire Brown-Baul. She gave tips to empower parents to take a more active role in their student’s education, emphasizing the leadership they provide as a parent.

“We need to learn about leadership ourselves so that we can be leaders of our children,” said Dr. Brown-Baul.

The district announced a partnership with Smart Social, a website that claims to specialize in digital citizenship. It features various videos and classes to teach students how to use the internet and how to guide their children online. It has a wealth of resources too, like a list of 50 video games that are popular with kids, over 360 definitions for slang or emoji shorthand, and over 130 popular apps used by teens today. Capital School District parents get free VIP access to the site.

Though there were only a handful of parents in attendance, Dr. Cade and other event organizers were unshaken, determined to make the next parent summit even bigger and better, predicting it will take place in the fall near the start of the next school year.