Back Row (L to R): David Washington, Betsy Taylor, James Hill, William Shackleford, Helema Vandivier, Becky Betz, Jerrl Bailey, Wanda Adams, Steven James, Chanda Epps.
Front Row (L to R): Kristy McGlaughlin, Angie Rabie, LaKitta Hicks-White, Adrienne Woods, Tamera Clarke.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships: Parent Involvement Facilitator (PIF) Literacy Team
Family literacy is an essential component of the district’s Title I Parent Involvement Program. Hampton City Schools has been sharpening its focus to fully meet NCLB requirements and to support the district’s strategic goals. The district developed a Parent Involvement Facilitator (PIF) Literacy Team to help increase students’ reading skills. Workshops and events were conducted that built on family strengths and equipped parents with information and skills to support students’ reading and learning at home. All activities were branded with a logo that reads, “Family Ties: The Reading Connection” and all involved collaborations with local businesses, community organizations, and corporate partners.
For example, at the start of the 08-09 school year, Title I partnered with LeapFrog School House and the Hampton Public Library to host the “Leaping into Literacy,” a Title I Family Night held at the North Hampton Community Center. The Title I Coordinator for Parent Involvement also created a Family Literacy Kit for the PIFs to use in their schools. PIFs received additional training, resources, and strategies to enhance their current programs and to increase parent involvement in their own schools, thereby taking the district leadership activities to the school buildings in order to involve more families.
Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs: Increase Volunteers in Each School and All Schools
The Title I Parent Involvement Program of Hampton City Schools (HCS) introduced a division-wide event to recognize the exceptional contributions of parents, volunteers, and community partners in all of its Title I schools. The Title I Promoter of Excellence planning committee met monthly. At each session, the team worked to plan the award event (i.e., theme, entertainment, and catering) and to coordinate the work of the schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships. The committee developed a nomination packet that explained the purpose of the award and guided each school in how to select nominees. Nominators were asked to provide specific examples of the partner’s success in helping to achieve quality educational outcomes for Title I students. The district award ceremony, Celebrating our Stars, was conducted in early May before the schools had their own volunteer appreciation events. This avoided conflicts in schedules, emphasized the links of volunteering to support for student learning, and gave schools an opportunity to showcase the district award winners at their own events.
School board members, district leaders, and city council members attended the awards night. Their participation showed the honorees and all schools’ Action Teams that district and political leaders at the highest levels recognized the importance of school, family, and community partnerships to support the district’s educational goals for students.
See Hampton City Schools’ prior Partnership District Award from 2007 and examples of Promising Partnership Practices on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. Visit the district at http://www.sbo.hampton.k12.va.us.