Row 1: Kari Dunlap, Kitty Murphy, Dr. Melanie Raczkiewicz, and Jodi Wirt.
Row 2: Dr. Alan Leis (Superintendent), Nina Menis (NNPS Key Contact), Patti McIntire, Dr. Mike Scorzo, Sandy Shamburek, Erin Anderson, and Patrick Gaskin.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships
Naperville, an eight-time award-winning district, is showing how to sustain excellent programs of partnership. All 21 elementary, middle, and high schools in this district are members of NNPS and have action teams that the district calls School, Family, Community Partnership (SFCP) teams. In 2006-07, the district’s theme was “Partners Working with a Unified Vision.” District, school, and family leaders are working together with a single vision to enhance the learning of every student.
Across schools, nearly half of the SFCP leaders turn over each year. District leaders for partnerships know it is important to orient new leaders to teamwork on partnerships and to inspire those who return as members of their school teams. The district invited Dr. Mavis Sanders from NNPS to meet with all 21 schools. She provided a “refresher” course on Epstein’s framework of six types of involvement and how to work effectively with families from diverse backgrounds. She extended the school’s attention to community connections through her book, Building School-Community Partnerships-Collaboration for Student Success, which was given to each school to strengthen their partnership plans in the next school year. Naperville is boldly showing that even excellent district and school programs can keep improving from one year to the next.
Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs
The Core Team, a district-level leadership group with a principal and parent co-chairs, works with the district’s director for partnerships. The group produces a Core Team Newsletter that keeps all schools’ ATPs aware of district policies, schools’ progress on partnerships, and related events. The Superintendent’s column highlights partnership work, the importance of building relationships, and the district’s progress on curriculum, instruction, and test scores. It seems clear that the district’s excellent test scores, across schools, is due to hard work by educators and strong partnerships with families and the community.
This year, the district leader and Core Team developed School Community Relations Profiles for all 21 schools, including contact information of key stakeholders engaged in building school, family, and community partnerships. Providing this information in a computerized, easy-to-read, and easily-updated format, has encouraged increased collaboration between the schools and community members.
See Naperville’s history of Partnership District Awards from 2000 to 2006 and examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. Visit the district at http://www.ncusd203.org/!community/SFCP/