SANDPOINT — As one parent pointed out on Thursday, the Forrest Bird Charter School family summit is a "one stop shop" with haircuts, vaccines, clothing, water bottles and lots of information from around the community.

"The purpose of this event is to connect our families with the staff here at the school, and also with community resources that are available to them to help make their families healthier and happier overall," said Lyndsay Holland, event organizer and family and community engagement coordinator for FBCS.

The event featured parent/teacher conferences, as well as a community fair with 14 businesses and organizations volunteering time to provide resources to students and their families. Holland expressed a "big thank you" to the community partners for donating their time. Panhandle Health District offered free vaccinations and boosters, and Alysha McLelland from Syringa Salon offered free haircuts.

"I'm always humbled to see the support that we have," Holland said, adding that a representative from Boundary County Library made the trip, because a busload of kids come down from Bonners Ferry to attend FBCS. "So he was willing to come and be here to show the resources and the classes and everything that they can get in their home community ... It really is a big team effort and looking at the support and everybody coming together is really amazing to see."

Jennifer Wyman from Underground Kindness shared with families about the mission of the nonprofit, which goes into the local schools based on teacher requests to teach a class that follows pillars such as unwind the mind, authentic connection, be unique and school of hard knocks, among others. Wyman said students need these tools because there is so much social, emotional and academic stress associated with school and youth. Underground Kindness helps the "move that stress in positive ways," Wyman said.

"And just spreading kindness," Wyman said, adding she had good feedback from families during the summit. "The parents hadn't really heard about us, or some of them have, but just knowing that their students are getting access to these tools is very pleasing to them. We are just here to promote it, because we do teach here at the charter school as well."

Students also had the chance to learn about job opportunities with the Sandpoint Parks and Recreation department, which include youth sports coordinators, youth sports referees, concessions workers, tennis instructors, swim instructors, lifeguards and other seasonal positions.

"There are a lot of kids coming through that just don't understand that we do offer a lot of employment opportunities," said Parks and Recreation Director Kim Woodruff. "... They need to be 14 and above for most of our jobs, but just kind of plant the seed that there are things out there — now is the time to be thinking about that."

Woodruff also introduced to the students and their families to the city's new app, Engage Sandpoint, which allows people to report on issues and stay up to date with what is going on in the city.

Other businesses and organizations that participated included Buckle Up Driving School, Sand Creek Custom Wear, FBCS Proud Parent Gear, 7B Fitness, NAMI Far North, North Idaho Children's Mental Health, LillyBrooke Family Justice Center, Bonner Community Housing Agency and Emery Accounting. A free soup dinner was handcrafted and served by FBCS culinary department during the family summit, and school staff also gave away 23 of the school's laptop computers that are no longer used to the first families to visit the technology department during the event.

School shouldn't be just about academics, said Mary Jensen, charter administrator. It should be about the students' overall welfare, she said.

"When they are hungry or when they are sick or they are worried about clothing, then their brain isn't into learning," she said. "So part of family summit is to give everybody that opportunity to have a good start and be able to have similar academic experiences."

This was the second year of the event, and Holland said while the family summit was successful the first year as well, she learned a few things. One thing, she said, was that high school and middle school teachers needed to be in both buildings. While they encouraged people to visit both buildings, she said, if a parent had a high school student, they stayed at the high school building; if they had a middle school student, they primarily stayed at the middle school.

"So they missed out on the other things," Holland said. "And we also felt like it was important, no matter what age, for them to see teachers that will be maybe coming up in their high school career."

Holland said the school plans to make the family summit an annual event that will continue to evolve and grow each year.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.