How one former teacher is building bridges
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Teachers today are constantly asked to do more with fewer resources. They do their best to meet curriculum standards and boost test scores that are used to evaluate their effectiveness—all while addressingstudent and family needs that create barriers to learning. Meanwhile, local companies and organizations with resources to spare are eager to help, but they don’t always know what schools truly need or how to navigate the public education system to effectively meet those needs.
So how do we bridge this gap? Why is it so difficult to connect those who are asking for help with those who are equipped to help them? As a School Partnership Director for Promise Partnership Utah, these arethe questions Patti White works to answer every day.
“We’re losing teachers who are discouraged because of scores, but it’s not the teachers’ fault,” Patti said. “They’re often working with students who, let’s say, don’t have the resources to get eyeglasses, or come to school and they’re hungry, or are moving three times in a year because they can’t pay rent. As a teacher, you’re looking at the educational piece, but students need all these wraparound services so they can be successful, and [teachers] can’t do it alone. It’s our community’s responsibility to give them the resources that they need.”
But those resources don’t just magically appear, and it’s not because they don’t exist. The resources are out there—in fact, Utah consistently ranks first in the nation for charitable giving and volunteerism—but there’s a disconnect that’s preventing all that generosity from going where it’s needed most. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces are on the table, but there has to be someone who can come and fit them together.
“A lot of businesses have said to me, ‘We want to help, but we don’t know how,’” Patti said. “And the schools would say, ‘We don’t have time to look for these things. We’re stretched. We’re doing as much as we can.’ So you have to have a person who can do some of that legwork to find what [schools] need, see what’s available, and then help bring those resources.”
For the last six years, Patti has performed what is known in community organizing circles as a “backbone function,” aligning partners toward common goals and providing facilitation support. In this backbone role, she works to build bridges between schools and the community—putting the puzzle together one piece at a time.
Lessons in Partnership
Patti knows how challenging it can be for teachers because she’s been there. Before coming to serve on the backbone team that supports Promise Partnership Utah, she worked in Granite School District for 32 years—first as an elementary school teacher, then as a curriculum specialist, as a sixth-grade teacher at a school for gifted students, and finally as a systems coach supporting Title I and failing schools. During this time, Patti came to understand a simple truth that became a key aspect of her education philosophy: students learn best when they can see the impact of their work.
One year, Patti’s sixth graders became frustrated because whenever the air quality outside was poor, they were forced to spend recess indoors. When the students surfaced this issue, Patti saw an opportunity to bring in the partnership and expertise of organizations in the community.
Through a collaboration with Utah Clean Cities, Patti’s students sent surveys to school districts across Utah and found that none of them had existing policies related to school bus idling. They also took air quality samples around the school and developed outreach materials including videos, bumper stickers, and signs to discourage unnecessary idling. Patti’s students worked with Representative Carol Spackman Moss to write a clean air resolution and traveled to the Utah State Capitol to present their findings in House and Senate committee meetings. As a result of the students’ advocacy, HJR5 Clean Air Resolution passedduring the 2010 legislative session, and the students returned to the Capitol to attend the ceremonial bill signing with then Governor Gary Herbert.
“I’ll never forget how, after presenting this at a House committee meeting and seeing the value of their solution, my student Rachel said, ‘Mrs. White, I feel good today. We made a difference.’”
From Classroom to Community
Even though she is no longer a teacher, Patti continues to engage students through project-based learning, and she still leverages community partnerships to do it. In her role on the backbone team for Promise Partnership Utah, she has worked with the teachers and administrators at East High School to support English language learner students.
“At East, they have up to 45 languages,” Patti said. “So when a student comes to school, they can feel very much alone. We’re really trying to boost their confidence and leadership skills. We’re trying to give them a voice.”
Recently, the students have been working with Spy Hop to create zines and videos that will welcome new students who might also be feeling overwhelmed or alone. The materials will serve as orientation resources so they can successfully navigate life at East High. In past projects, students collaborated with a local artist from Workshop SLC to complete a mural focused on the theme of belonging. They also worked with volunteer artists and editors to write, illustrate, and publish books that tell the story of their own lives.
For Patti, the best reward is seeing students thrive in their education.
“That’s what touches me the most is when students see their own success because of their hard work, where they get to see how they’ve made a difference in their own learning,” Patti said. “When the kids go, ‘Oh, this was fun. I enjoyed this.’ And then they’re excited to come to school. There’s nothing better than that.”
Written by Jenna Fischer, Content Strategist
