Row 1: Bee Lee, Pablo Matamoros, Dana Abrams, and Betty Gerlach. Row 2: Kate Bonestroo, Joe Munnich (NNPS Key Contact), Abdisalam Adam, and Donald Sysyn.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships
St. Paul Public Schools has worked with NNPS for nearly ten years and won Partnership District Awards in 2003 and 2004. Despite district budget cuts and leadership changes, the new Family & Community Involvement Coordinator and his colleagues have sustained leadership on partnerships and support for school teams. At the district level, district leaders representing different departments met in the spring of 2006 formed the Family & Community Involvement Steering Committee (FCI).
FCI Steering Committee members share information on existing and planned partnership activities to eliminate overlap and jointly address gaps in partnership work. They addressed questions such as: Who are our families? What are our mutual goals and priorities? What is our district-level vision for partnerships? Where are our supports? The FCI met with the new superintendent to learn about her goals and to discuss the importance of work on partnerships across departments and in the schools. They took steps in three areas to create collaborations: communications, transitions, and learning at home. The various departments became more aware of each others’ work and now are addressing ways to work with families and the community to support academic achievement for all students.
Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs
District leaders in the St. Paul Public School System developed 17 short parenting sessions called Added Value Activities for schools to select and use at events such as open house nights, award ceremonies, and student performances. The activities, which can be conducted in 10-15 minutes, make the most of parents’ time when they attend popular school events, and provide information for parents who may not typically attend workshops.
Topics cover educational strategies such as tips for reading with children and how to help children build vocabulary. Some sessions tackle challenging issues on how to talk with students about bullying and teen depression. Many include a component for parents to complete at home with their children. The information is supplemented by handouts and activities in the district’s four major languages: English, Hmong, Spanish and Somali. Added Value Activities are on the district’s website at www.title1.spps.org.
See St. Paul’s history of Partnership District Awards in 2003 and 2004 and examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. Visit the district at http://www.spps.org/.