FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Southwest Allen County School District recently sent district families an email inviting people in Aboite Township and Lafayette Township be a part of their first ever SACS Education Advocate group. This applies to all parents, employees, community members, and graduates.

According the the email sent by the district, SACS is looking for individuals who are committed to the mission, vision, beliefs, and goals of the district. They should also promote student achievement and community engagement.

“School districts today are under attack, public education is often misunderstood a lot of politics involved in the voices around education,” said Ginder. “What we think we can do with our year long program is give people a back side view a backdoor view of what’s going on in school and help them understand what goes into a day.”

The advocate group will spend 10 months together on a monthly basis.

In the email from the district, a SACS Education Advocate, will gain insight into every aspect of the district’s daily operations. For example, academics, student services, business operations, transportation, and food services.

Superintendent Ginder explained why this was created.

“So we can spread the word of what is really going on and what’s great and what’s happening,” Ginder said. “In schools, often a lot of rumor and I have always said rumors are more interesting than the truth so we going to try and get to the truth and help people see what their kids are doing.”

The email sent out to district families last Friday and SACS is already seeing more applicants than they expected in a few short days.

“The goal originally is to shoot for 15 but for right now after basically a weekend we’ve got 23 applicants so we’ve got some room to play here,” Ginder said.

The application to be considered for the SACS Education Advocates Class of 2024 is open now until September 11. Those should be passionate and able to commit to all nine meeting dates. Further information about the topics and activities to be covered can be found here.

The Class of 2024 SACS Education Advocates will be announced in late September.