Dozens of students and family members showed up within an hour when Powell Middle School held its first community showcase event on Tuesday.

The event aimed to show students and parents what clubs and organizations are available in the community. 

All schools in the district must have two Title 1 parent nights throughout the year that open schools to students and parents. Principal Kyle Rohrer said last spring that staff began brainstorming ways to draw more parents to these programs. Rohrer and assistant principal Chanler Buck began talking to staff and bouncing ideas through the middle school. Rohrer said the big question was, “How can we get 50, 75, 100 people through the door?”

The answer was to gather school clubs as well as businesses and organizations in the community that could potentially be valuable resources for students and families. 

Teachers were also available to talk with parents as an informal parent teacher conference.

“It’s kind of old school, we’re peeling the hours back at parent teacher conferences,” Rohrer said.

He said the goal of the community showcase was to increase parent turnout. He also said there is the potential to continue the showcase in the following years, adding more organizations and potentially food trucks.

The evening also featured Canvas training for parents and offered free shaved ice from Ohana Shave Ice. Rohrer thanked the Wolff family who owns the food truck for their generous donation to the event.

The clubs and organizations at the event included:

Powell Public Library

Powell Recreation

PMS School Clubs 

Math table

Reading table

PMS Athletics 

PMS counselors

Verizon/Cellular Plus

SRO - Powell PD 

GEAR UP

Love & Logic 

Homesteader Museum

Heritage Health

DANO 

Scouts 

307Health

Freedom Fitness