When Hawthorne Elementary parent Greg Whittington pulled the white Watch D.O.G.S. T-shirt over his checkered button-down, he became the school's Watch Dog — the day's designated male volunteer — with duties like aiding students, patrolling the lunchroom and administering high fives in the hallway.

In the past few years, Jefferson County Public Schools has pushed to get fathers, grandfathers and other men into the classroom. During the Dec. 15 Board of Education meeting, the district nearly doubled the number of schools participating in the national Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) program, an initiative through the National Center for Fathering that encourages fathers' involvement in education and exposes kids to positive male role models.