 |
| Row 1: Jane Wernette, Terri Stevens, Karen Currier, and Sandy Shamburek. Row 2: Julie Lichter, Gail Zeeb, Erica Eysturlid, Mike VanHarlingen, Kitty Murphy, Patti McIntire, Dr. Alan Leis (Superintendent), Lenore Johnson, Paul Schmidt, Nina Menis (NNPS Key Contact), Karen Noble, Sheila Sarovich, and Debbie Shipley. |
Naperville District 203 earned its sixth consecutive NNPS Partnership District Award in 2005, ending what Core Team Co-Chairs called “an exhilarating year.” Some adjustments and improvements enabled Naperville to strengthen and sustain its partnership program in all 21 of its elementary, middle, and high schools.
A Core Team and director of partnerships guide the district's programs. A principal and parent Co-Chair the Core Team, which includes parents, principals, and staff from each level of schooling; district leaders; a representative from the business community; an expert on social- and emotional learning; and an executive of the Home & School Association (Naperville's PTA). The team meets bimonthly, visits with the co-chairs of each school's School-Family-Community Partnership (SFCP) team and, on request, meets with individual building teams. The Core Team sends a bimonthly newsletter, e-mail information, and maintains a web site to connect with all 21 schools.
Many district activities continued in 2005 including a fall orientation workshop for new teachers and SFCP team members, a computerized Knowledge Bank of all partnership activities in the schools, business partnership and grant-writing workshops, an end-of-year celebration, and the publication of a collection of best practices in the district. Also, the Core Team conducted a “kick off” workshop on partnership program development for all principals, parent chairs, action team members, and Home & School Association presidents, with strong support and participation by the superintendent.
The Core Team and the district's Curriculum and Instruction Department sponsored a series of workshops for parents on district assessments, state tests, and classroom assessments. The workshops were repeated in the day and evening, with handouts posted on the website for those unable to attend. Over 75 parents attended each presentation and gave positive evaluations of the sessions. The leaders for partnerships also conducted grant-writing workshops to help schools find funds for partnership activities. Activities also were conducted in cooperation with the Naperville Education Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, Naperville Community Television, neighboring Indian Prairie School District 204, and others.
This year, the Core Team increased communications with the Home & School Association and worked to resolve some questions about the respective roles of SFCP and Home & School. The goal is to identify unique contributions and to emphasize collaborative actions by the two units that are working to engage families and communities in student learning and school success. In 2006, the two groups may become even more unified because a Home & School officer has been added to the Core Team and a Core Team member is serving as president of Home & School.
All partnership activities are evaluated with exit surveys and end-of-year reviews, using NNPS UPDATE and other surveys to chart progress and plan improvements. Looking ahead, district leaders plan to continue helping all schools link family and community involvement with goals for student achievement and success, and will increase business and organization partnerships.
See Naperville's history of Partnership District Awards from 2000 to 2004 and examples of Promising Partnership Practices on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section In the Spotlight. For more information on Naperville's work on partnerships visit: http://www.ncusd203.org/!community/SFCP/.