Parents dropping their students off at Dolvin Elementary on chilly Friday mornings are getting a warm welcome from a special group of greeters.
As the children make their way to their classrooms, they’re cheered on by the Dolvin Dads, a group of volunteers who want to get fathers more involved in the Johns Creek school.
“We have a lot of parent involvement here, but a lot of it is from the moms,” said Assistant Principal Andy Stein, who’s in his first year at the 775-student school. “Dads don’t always know how to get involved or help. Or sometimes their schedules prevent them, if they have full-time jobs and aren’t able to come in at 10 a.m.”
So Stein gave them an idea: Don’t just say good-bye to your student and leave. Hang around a while and open doors for other parents making the morning drop off.
“We thought starting off by helping with the carpool on Friday mornings was a fun and easy way to get dads to the school,” said Stein. “They can open doors from 7 to 7:40, then go to work.”
The Friday sessions have become a regular activity for the Dolvin Dads who open doors, help kids out of cars and greet them with grins.
“They take over for teachers who have carpool duty that day and greet kids by saying, ‘We’re happy you’re here today,’” said Stein. “We also have the music teacher set up speakers, and some students act as DJs to run the play list. We have a lot of fun with it. It’s nothing too crazy, but it is an easy way to get more dad involvement.”
Helping Stein organize the dads is Brad Agnew, who had been brainstorming with Stein on ways to get fathers more involved when they both hit on the carpool concept. Agnew has a fifth- and first-grader at the school and is an active volunteer.
“I’m a stay-at-home dad, so I can do lots of things there,” he said. “I work on the yearbook. When the garden needed to be rebuilt, I sent out an email and got some dads involved. The carpool idea is just another way to do that.”
Agnew is already plotting different ways to get the dads more active. “If their schedules don’t allow them to do carpools on Friday mornings, maybe they could be here on field day, when we’d like to have dads run the day. We could have a STEM night with dads who know about coding work with the kids.”
One of the hurdles Agnew and Stein are working to overcome is the idea that school activities and projects are just for moms.
“That stigma is still around, but we’re getting past that,” said Agnew. “Dolvin Dads is about changing that. It helps for kids to see us there, and they love us. For those who have come out for the carpool, it’s been so rewarding.”
Information about Dolvin Elementary is online at fultonschools.org/dolvines.
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Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
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