PARENTAL/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Avondale Elementary School understands the importance of involving parents and the community as a whole in promoting higher student achievement and general good will between the school and those it serves. Therefore, Avondale Elementary School shall strive to develop and maintain the capacity for meaningful and productive parental and community involvement that will result in partnerships that are mutually beneficial to the school, students, parents, and the community. To achieve such ends, the school shall work to
Involve parents and the community in the development and improvement of Title I programs for the school;
Have a coordinated involvement program where the involvement activities of the school enhance the
involvement strategies of other programs such as Head Start, HIPPY, Parents as Partners, Parents as Teachers, ABC, ABC for School Success, area Pre-K programs, and Even Start;
Explain to parents and the community the State’s content and achievement standards, State and local student assessments and how the school’s curriculum is aligned with the assessments and how parents can work with the school to improve their child’s academic achievement;
Provide parents with the materials and training they need to be better able to help their child achieve. The school may use parent resource centers or other community based organizations to foster parental involvement and provide literacy and technology training to parents.
Educate school staff, with the assistance of parents, in ways to work and communicate with parents and to know how to implement parent involvement programs that will promote positive partnerships between the school and parents;
Keep parents informed about parental involvement programs, meetings, and other activities they could be involved in. Such communication shall be, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand;
Find ways to eliminate barriers that work to keep parents from being involved in their child’s education. This may include providing transportation and child care to enable parents to participate, arranging meetings at a variety of times, and being creative with parent/teacher conferences;
Find and modify other successful parent and community involvement programs to suit the needs of our school;
Train parents to enhance and promote the involvement of other parents;
Provide reasonable support for other parental involvement activities as parents may reasonably request.
To help promote an understanding of each party’s role in improving student learning, Avondale Elementary School shall develop a compact that outlines the responsibilities of parents, students, and the school staff in raising student academic achievement and in building the partnerships that will enable students to meet the State’s academic standards.
Avondale Elementary School shall convene an annual meeting, or several meetings at varying times if necessary to adequately reach parents of participating students, to inform parents of the school’s participation in Title I, its requirements regarding parental involvement, and the parents right to be involved in the education of their child.
Avondale Elementary School shall, at least annually, involve parents in reviewing the school’s Title I program and parental involvement policy in order to help ensure their continued improvement.
Avondale Elementary School will encourage parental and community involvement.
The following actions will be used by Avondale Elementary School to implement the parental engagement policy:
Action 1: Avondale Elementary School will conduct an annual "Parents make a difference" night at the beginning of school. Parents will be informed as to how they can be involved in their child's education, and to review school/classroom policies and procedures.
Action 2: Avondale Elementary School will review annually school policies and practices to encourage parental involvement and the process for resolving parental concerns. The policies and practices will be included in the student handbook.
Action 3: Parent facilitator will assist in updating a parent and/or alumni advisory commission consisting of alumni and current parents to provide guidance and advice for school improvement for Avondale Elementary School. This site based Parent/Alumni commission will have regular monthly meetings.
Action 4: Avondale Elementary will enable the formation of a parent/community volunteer organization. This organization will be called H.E.A.R.T (Helping Educate And Reach(kids)Together. This organization will be site based and will meet regularly to discuss ways in which Avondale staff, parents, and community resources can better serve the students/parents of AES.
Action 5: Avondale Elementary School will have family packets called W.O.W.(Wonderfully Organized Work). Materials and supplies will be purchased to create the W.O.W. family packets. These family packets will include school handbooks, general information, parenting tips, weekly assessments, graded papers, etc. These notebooks will be sent home daily providing regular, reciprocal, and meaningful communication between teachers and parents.
Action 6: Avondale Elementary School will plan and schedule various activities that encourage student/parent/community involvement and provide parents opportunities to promote responsible parenting.
Action 7: Avondale Elementary will select a Parent Involvement Facilitator.
Action 8: Parents will be notified of absences, tardies and other information using school messenger software.
Action 9: Marion School District will schedule two parent/teacher conference days during the school year. Teachers and parents will discuss academic progress, and other areas of concern.
Action 10: Avondale Elementary School will ensure that resources such as parenting books, magazines, and other materials are available to parents through the parent center located in the library.
Action 11: Avondale Elementary school will send out a survey requesting parent volunteers to help with school activities. Parents will be given an opportunity to express how they would like to volunteer. The results of the survey will be compiled in a volunteer resource book for staff use.
Action 12: Marion School District will contact the Marion Chamber of Commerce and ask them to compile a list of community resources available to strengthen family and educational goals.
Action 13: Avondale Elementary School will collectively recognize parents who attend the parent/teacher conferences. This information will be published in the local newspaper.
Action 14: Avondale Elementary School will engage in various activities that will help parents assist in their child's learning. Some examples include: (a) sending home monthly parent publications that offer parents tips about parenting issues, discipline management, literacy issues, etc., (b)Daily W.O.W notebooks,(c)teacher webpages.
Action 15: Avondale Elementary School will review and update the parent involvement plan annually. The results of 2008-09 annual survey indicates that the academic quality at AES has improved and that Parent participation at AES has increased. This also indicates that the barriers existing that hinder our parent participation is largely due to parent work schedules and lack of transportation.
Action 16: A school/parent compact will be included in the student handbook that lists school, parent and student responsibilities. The handbook will be distributed to each student. The compact will be signed and returned to school. The compact will be explained to parents on an individual basis by the teacher during open house and/or parent conferences.
Action 17: Avondale Elementary School will implement the Watch DOG program. A parent night will be help for fathers, grandfathers, uncles, or brothers to learn about the schools Watch DOG program. This program encourages men to spend at least one day a year volunteering at their child's school.
Action 18: Software will be purchased to implement the Edline program. Edline is an online grade reporting system, designed to provide parents with up to date, accurate information about their child's academic performance, assignments and other information. AES will provide training on how to use Edline to staff/parents.
Action 19: Avondale Elementary will work with the community preschools to help students transition to kindergarten. Local Preschools will be invited to an orientation tour of Avondale Elementary, specifically the Kindergarten classrooms and will be invited to stay for lunch.
Action 20: Avondale Elementary will work with Marion Elementary school to coordinate an orientation tour for all first grade students to assist with the transition to second grade.
This policy shall be part of the school’s Title I plan and shall be distributed to parents of the district’s students and provided, to the extent practicable, in a language the parents can understand.
Parental Information and Resource Centers
The Center for Effective Parenting serves as the Arkansas State Parent Information & Resource Center (PIRC). Information for the Arkansas State PIRC can be found at http://www.parenting-ed.org.
Date Adopted: September 22, 2009 District ACSIP Team
Last Revise: October 26, 2009
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