CRAIG HOCKENBERRY: Parental Involvement Christ Church Cathedral By CRAIG HOCKENBERRY For several decades Oyler School and Christ Church Cathedral has had a remarkable partnership that focused on involving parents with their child’s education. The partnership started many years before I became the principal of Oyler, but I certainly kept the long standing partnership together and carried out their mission through a large grant we received every year. We had many great friends from Christ Church Cathedral that served as mentors to our kids, donors, and contributed to our social needs through all types of donations. We also had very important people such as Al Hampton, Cathy Crain, Pat Doyle, and Bob Lashell who did amazing things to support Oyler. Mr. Lashell served on the outreach committee and he made sure our application for $20,000.00 always made it to the top of the list. Pat Doyle served for many years on our LSDMC as a member representing school partnerships and Al Hampton was one of the most influential mentors to ever work with our children. After Al passed away we named the mentoring program after him. Christ Church had a very strong focus on involving urban parents into the fabric of the schools. They gave us money to accomplish this every year. We spent the funds to enhance open houses, parent conferences, theme nights, plays, and more to make these events filled with food, fun and games. This connected the parents and the community to the school and the result was a huge opportunity to build remarkable relationship through an amazing partnership with Christ Church Cathedral. I look back at this partnership and always enjoyed fostering it and making it stronger so that we could continue to serve the students of our city at the highest level. Partnerships are equally as important as academics in an urban school. CRAIG HOCKENBERRY CINCINNATI