Row 1:Chuck Freundt, Dr. Alan Leis, Patrick Gaskin, Kitty Murphy, and Kitty Ryan.
Row 2:Kathy Meyers, Erin Anderson, Theresa Tinker, Jessica Jozwiak, Nanette Awe, Nina Menis, Peggy Kulling, Yvonne Janvrin, Jeannie Matula, Julie Kassen, and Dr. Melanie Raczkiewicz.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships
Year after year, Naperville Community Unit School District – a nine-time Partnership District Award winner – has been a leader in sustaining and continually improving its district and school-based partnership programs. All 21 elementary, middle, and high schools in this district are members the Naperville network and linked to NNPS with action teams called School, Family, Community Partnership (SFCP) teams. Each year, the district develops its work around a theme – this year: Our Mosaic: School, Family, Community in District 203. District leaders conducted a forum on a new element in the curriculum that links schools and the community – entrepreneurship.
Representatives from more than 50 Naperville businesses came to the event to discuss the small business world with over 60 high school students. Keynote speakers from Illinois’s Institute for Entrepreneurship Education and the Naperville Chamber of Commerce offered advice to students on how to start a small business in today’s economy. At the end of the forum, students and business leaders met in small groups to discuss the skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur. District leaders shared these notes with the Curriculum Office after the event. Many high schools ignore this important topic for high school students, but Naperville, with good connections to the community, is taking a lead in helping students make contacts, ask questions, and build their interest in becoming entrepreneurs.Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs
Naperville district leaders strengthened their support of school principals, all of whom are co-chairs with a parent of every SFCP – the action teams for partnerships. Between September and June, district leaders met with 14 elementary school principals to share new tools to help principals and their partnership teams strengthen family and community involvement in ways linked to school goals for student success (e.g., in reading and literacy). This included updating the School Community Relations Profile Tool and delegating responsibility to a member of the team for managing business partnerships, so that they, too, contributed to student success on specific goals.
By appointing a team member or by delegating another leader for business partnerships, each school can stay in touch with community partners on a regular schedule. The leader for Type 6 (Collaborating with the Community) might, for example, make sure that their business partners are recognized in the school newsletter or at other school events. District leaders also offered principals a step-by-step planning tool for developing their annual School Improvement Plans. This included guidelines to coordinate the contributions and connections of the SFCP team, the Home and School Association, business and community partners, and others in the main plan so that it is clear how everyone is working to help students reach important goals for success in school.
See Naperville’s history of Partnership District Awards from 2000 to 2007 and examples of Promising Partnership Practices on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. Visit the district at http://www.ncusd203.org/!community/SFCP