Topeka USD 501 kicks off community listening tour at Milk & Honey Coffee Co.

Who, to Topeka USD 501 superintendent Tiffany Anderson, could be a stranger when it's the community's children that are her business?

She walks up to anyone and everyone around the Milk and Honey Coffee Co. café space, imploring them to tell her something she doesn't yet know about her district.

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In the woman in scrubs in the corner, Anderson strikes up conversation with a potential school nurse. Among a group of older ladies, she sees alumni who tell her "Here's how things used to be" in Topeka Public Schools. With a group of Highland Park High students, she finds conversation on how things should and could be in the district.

Tuesday was the first session of Topeka USD 501's community listening tour, in which Anderson and various other district administrators are hoping to learn more about the Topeka community's likes and needs in the school district.

"At parent-teacher conferences and enrollment and in most cases for school services, parents come to the school," Anderson said. "This is the opportunity for the school to come to families and to serve needs, literally in the center of the community at places that they shop at and go and get their services."

Topeka USD 501 community listening sessions are chance to learn, improve

Juli Watson, the incoming principal for Highland Park High School, said the listening sessions also provide an alternative venue for community members to engage with their local schools outside of a principal's office.

Officials from human resources and enrollment departments were also on hand to help answer about applying to or enrolling in the district.

It's Topeka USD 501's first community listening tour of this scope since before Anderson's first official day on the job, when she met with various community leaders to inform her first 100 days as superintendent.

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While the community listening sessions are framed as an "I Love Topeka Public Schools" tour, Anderson acknowledged the sessions are a valuable opportunity to learn how to improve.

"Often people will communicate and relate to you in a more formal way," she said. "But when you move yourself outside of that and put your sneakers to the ground in the community where they live and shop and have meals, people will communicate often with you in a less formal way and maybe share things with you about that neighborhood or their personal circumstances that they might not otherwise."

Future Topeka USD 501 listening sessions include KCDC, Hy-Vee and Mi Pueblito Meat Market

Tuesday was the first of four listening session dates. Anderson and other Topeka USD 501 administrators will have additional sessions at the following locations:

• Kansas Children's Discovery Center, 4400 S.W. 10th Ave., 11 a.m. to noon, Thursday, June 30.

• Hy-Vee, 2951 S.W. Wanamaker Road, 11 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, July 6.

• Mi Pueblito Meat Market, 621 S.E. Swygart St., 4 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, July 6.

Beside the sessions, Anderson said she encourages members of the community to engage with the district over social media and the district's online tip line at topekapublicschools.net/resources/district_tip_line.

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.