Maureen Dvorak, Action Team Chair; Don Perry, Principal (Naperville Community School District, 203)
Row 1: Gail Purpura, Louise Goodman, Barb Lindberg, Marie O’Hara, Marilyn Steury, Meryl Diamond, Julie Benario, Soo Chang, and Maureen Dvorak (ATP Chair). Row 2: Gail Gotsis, Mary Pat Witmer, Sheila Sarovich, Patti Wesley, Ruby Wright, Cindy Derry, Varsha Pancholi, and Don Perry (Principal).
Kennedy Junior High School’s Action Team for Partnership organizes its work with committees for the six types of involvement. The team has designed thoughtful leadership structures and processes. They have rotating co-chairs so that leaders are continually being developed and so that the team’s work is sure to continue. They recruit new team members by orienting incoming sixth graders’ families to the school’s partnership program and by inviting parents to participate. The plans for partnership are tied to the School Improvement Plan.
Activities are goal-oriented, student-focused, and spirited. There is a “kick off” meeting at the start of the year. A “Spirit Club” aims to increase students’ participation in school events, clubs, and after-school activities, with team parents as volunteers for all sports and activities. Newsletter articles feature partnership activities, and “coupons” for parents offer two-way communications to collect parents’ ideas and suggestions. The team developed a booklet to improve the recruitment and organization of volunteers. Workshops and meetings are conducted to help parents understand early adolescence and their children’s junior high experiences. Kennedy Junior High conducts a school-wide Title I program.
Like all effective Action Teams for Partnerships, the principal is an active and effective team member and supporter. In addition, district leaders assist this and all schools to strengthen their partnership programs and to evaluate their work. Kennedy Junior High School’s partnership program demonstrates how important parents are in the middle grades, and how schools can effectively organize their plans and implement activities to keep all parents involved in their children’s education.
The National Network helps strengthen cooperation between the school, family, and community, which enriches the curriculum offered to our students. . . .Our school has new opportunities to support and recognize parents in leadership roles. Also, through a variety of business and community involvement activities, even community members without children in our schools have the opportunity to make important contributions to the children…
--Maureen Dvorak and Don Perry, Kennedy Junior High School