National Network of Partnership Schools
Johns Hopkins university
partnership award
winners – 2004
WEBSITE SUMMARIES
2004 Partnership DISTRICT AWARD
WITH SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Naperville
School District 203, Naperville,
IL
Nina Menis, Director, Office of Community Relations; Alan Leis,
Superintendent
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| Linda Gross, Debbie Shipley, Jim Caudill, Kitty Murphy, Patti McIntire, Dr. Alan Leis (Superintendent), Karen Currier, Lenore Johnson, Jane Wernette, Dagmar Porcelli, Sheila Sarovich, Tom Paulsen, Paul Schmidt, Mike Van Harlingen, Terri Stevens, Mike Jaensch and Pat Todd. Not Pictured: Nina M. Menis (NNPS Key Contact). |
Naperville District 203 is a five-year NNPS
Partnership District Award winner. This
year, after welcoming a new superintendent and new partnership director, the
district took steps to strengthen and sustain its partnership program in all
elementary, middle, and high schools.
A Core Team advises the leaders for
partnerships at the district level. It includes
parents, principals, and staff from each level of schooling, district leaders,
business and community partners, and the Home and School Association. The leader for partnerships and Core Team also
meet once a trimester with individual schools’ SFCP team co-chairs and on
request with individual building teams. They send a bimonthly newsletter, e-mail
information, and maintain a website to connect with all 21 schools.
Among many activities, the leaders for
partnerships sponsored a fall orientation workshop for new teachers and new SFCP
team members; continued Hurrah!, a
program of volunteers; and collaborated with the Home and School Association on
many activities to increase family and community involvement. They also coordinated a Knowledge Bank of over 100 activities from all schools, including
many that link family and community involvement to student achievement across
the curriculum; conducted a business partnership workshop; held a spring
celebration of progress on partnerships; and compiled and distributed a 2004
collection to share best practices across schools.
The Core Team and Curriculum and
Instruction Departments sponsored a series of workshops for parents on the
district’s philosophy of assessments, state tests, and classroom
assessments. The workshops were
repeated in the day and evening, and handouts were posted on the website so
that those who could not attend could access the information. Over 75 parents attended each presentation
and gave positive evaluations of the sessions.
The leaders for partnerships also conducted grant-writing workshops to
help schools replace funds cut at the district level. Various activities were conducted in cooperation with the
Naperville Education Foundation, Rotary, Women’s League, Jaycees, Chamber of
Commerce, Naperville Community Television, and others) For more information on
Naperville’s work on partnerships visit: http://www.ncusd203.org/!community/SFCP/
All partnership activities are evaluated
with an exit survey for instant feedback.
In addition, end-of-year reviews are conducted with the NNPS UPDATE and other surveys to review
progress and to plan improvements. Next
year, the leaders for partnerships plan to continue to help all schools link family
and community involvement more closely with goals for student achievement and
success, and increase business and organization partnerships. The superintendent, partnership director,
and other district leaders will visit all 21 schools to meet with the principal,
School Improvement Team, parent leaders, and others to discuss the school improvement
process, how to link SFCP with the School Improvement Team, and how to involve
parents in ways that will support school improvement goals.
The new superintendent identified a need to
strengthen the principals’ roles in developing their schools’ programs of
partnership, and increasing the openness of communications about improving
school partnership programs and activities in every school. Naperville is demonstrating that changes in
leaders can strengthen rather than disrupt district programs of school, family,
and community partnerships.
ABOUT NNPS: What Naperville’s Leaders Say to Other
Districts . . .
NNPS’ model comes with years of research
on the importance of family and community involvement in schools. . . It is not so much a product as a
framework to help every child succeed in school. . . The six types of
involvement [enable] any school or district to build a successful program of
partnerships [with activities] that benefit students, families, the community, teachers,
and the school. NNPS provides
ongoing support and . . their materials are well-written and
user-friendly for parents and educators.
NNPS realizes that each district has its own culture and needs flexible
advice on how to structure programs of partnership. NNPS’ advice goes beyond
the theoretical – it is field tested and practical.
Also see
Naperville’s history of Partnership District Awards from 2000 to 2003 and
examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in
the section In the Spotlight.