Row 1: Deidra McCollum (NNPS Key Contact), Liz Flynn, Lorraine Landon (NNPS Key Contact), and Saundra Hill (Superintendent). Row 2: Saul Martinez, Pete Felsted, William Leggett, Dustin Cardenas, Sherry Lancon, and John Hergert.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships
Pasco School District and its 16 schools joined NNPS. All schools’ Action Teams for Partnerships received team training and wrote One-Year Action Plans linked to school improvement goals. As one leadership activity last year, the district coordinators held a Parent Involvement Essay Contest for the National Boxtops4Education Contest and to address district goals to increase student writing skills and family involvement. Students worked with a parent on the question, “If you and your parent were made principals for a day, what would you do to increase parent involvement at your school?” From the 39 student/parent pairs, one pair was a finalist for Washington State.
This year, 239 essays were written in English, Spanish, and Russian in response to a prompt like one the students might see on the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) test. It stated: “The School Board has offered to make you and parent principal for a day if you can come up with ways to encourage more parents to be involved in your school. In 250-500 words, write a letter to the Board explaining how you would increase family involvement in your school.” Prizes, plaques, checks, and a luncheon were provided to the winners of the contest. The judges received notes of thanks signed by all of the winners and each student and parent team received a thank you postcard for participating.
Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs
ATP Connections, a monthly district newsletter, is used by the district coordinators for partnerships to disseminate valuable information to more than 230 ATP members. The newsletter on partnerships helps the district’s 16 school teams stay connected. ATP Connections includes five sections: District News, Spotlight On, Read All About It, Resource Center and Important Dates.
The newsletter also is shared with district administrators, the school board, and various community contacts to keep everyone informed about the partnership activities in the district. For example, the October issue was sent to 157 local businesses, more than 30 community contacts and neighboring districts, service agencies, and non-profit organizations. Recipients could sign up to receive subsequent issues of ATP Connections electronically or by mail. The newsletter is available in English and Spanish and is posted on the district website http://www.psd1.org.
See Pasco School District's examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. To learn more about this district, visit http://www.psd1.org.