BOAZ

INTERMEDIATE

SCHOOL

PARENTAL

INVOLVEMENT

PLAN

2006-2007

(revised)

BOAZ INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT PLAN

Boaz Intermediate School encourages parental involvement as a way to open up the school doors to parents and others in the community who want to play an active role in the local educational process. We will implement programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of the parents in their children’s education. 

At Boaz Intermediate School, we are aware that the state theme for 2006-2007 for parental involvement is “Children are the future – Share the vision”. As a Title I school, with better than half of our students receiving free or reduced meals, our parents are a very important factor in our school effort to succeed.

Parental Involvement in the LEA/Schoolwide Parental Involvement Plan

Boaz Intermediate School will establish a Parent Advisory Committee at the beginning of each school year.  The committee will include a minimum of three parents to serve on our schoolwide advisory committee.  The committee will meet to write and revise the Parental Involvement Plan, discuss program guidelines, and objectives.  A copy of the Parental Involvement Plan will be placed in the library and made available for all parents to view.  Surveys will be sent home at the end of each school year seeking input from parents on activities, materials and training that should be offered to parents the next year.  The surveys will be reviewed by the committee to determine changes that need to be made.

Use of Parental Involvement Funds

(LEA Set-Aside Reservation)

We feel parental involvement is so important that we use our allocation distributed under the Section 1118 requirement to help fund the salary of our LEA parental involvement specialist.  She helps coordinate many school parental activities, supports our efforts to include our parents, and provides for some resources to make our parental efforts successful. We strive to share in this vision and give all students a more successful future.

Decisions regarding how parent involvement funds will be used are made during meetings held by the LEA parental involvement specialist throughout the year.  These meeting include members of the advisory council, parents of students, and faculty from each school in our system.

Parental Involvement in the Development of the School Parent Involvement Plan

Parents are involved in the development of the writing of the School Parent Involvement Plan through meetings of PTO members, parent surveys, and through Title I Continuous Schoolwide Improvement Plan committee member meetings.  The plan is distributed through the school by making a copy of the plan available in the public library, as well as the school library.  Parents can review the plan and make suggestions or comments through PTO meetings.

By allowing our parents the opportunity to serve on committees or to hold office in our PTO, we feel we are simply preparing for a more successful school year at Boaz Intermediate School.  We feel that the more stakeholders involved in our school, the higher the levels of achievement we will reach. The parent’s needs survey allows parents to make and submit their comments, approval or disapproval with our Parent Involvement Plan.

Procedure for Stating Comments or Disagreements Concerning the LEA’s Consolidated Application for NCLB Funds

When Title 1 funds are apportioned, parents are notified and given a chance to submit comments through letters sent home with our students during the review process.  They are made aware of a copy of the plan which is placed in the library.  Parents are also informed of their right to give input concerning any aspect of the plan and told they have a right to submit concerns in writing to the school.

Annual Meeting for Informing Parents of Schoolwide Program and Title I Requirements and Offerings

Meetings during the year allow for the planning of important school events to take place.  These events include Orientation and Open House, fundraisers, ELL parent orientation, Reading Night, Library Book Fair, Awards Day, special celebrations, Santa’s Secret Shop and our Spring Fling in May.  Each of these activities has many parents serving our school in the best interest of our students.  At our annual Open House, we combine the meeting with our PTO to inform parents about Title I and our schoolwide program.  This is usually our largest gathering.  Our other meetings involve Award’s Day presentations and PTO discussions.  We discuss school programs, curricular offerings, results of previous year’s assessment and anything in reviewing or assessing student progress.

A flexible number and format of parent meeting at Boaz Intermediate School include an annual Open House for parents of students to inform them of their school’s participation in our schoolwide Title program and to explain its requirements and their right to be involved.  We   also hold an annual ELL Parent Orientation for parents of ELL students to provide information explaining school plans, programs, and procedures with an interpreter provided.  The Title I staff   offer a flexible number of meetings during the school year in coordination with other regularly scheduled school events, such as Awards Day, Spring Fling, Reading Night, Parent Conferences, etc.

Parents are involved in an organized and timely way in the planning, review, and improvement of the schoolwide program by surveys which are sent home to provide annual parental input on issues involved in their child’s education which include child safety perceptions of parents as to various activities at our school.  These surveys include parental input, educational environment, school facilities, curricular offerings, a family friendly atmosphere, and student assessments results.  Surveys are tabulated and reviewed to see what prominently good areas at our school are and to determine what areas we should concentrate on to improve our school situation.  They also provide opportunity for parents to submit their thoughts or their disagreement with our program on anything concerning school.  We also ask them to give their view on our school and its’ activities.

Parents are provided timely information about programs through written and oral communication. Written communication, such as, school calendars, surveys, forms or letters that are sent home, are written in English and Spanish.  Our Hispanic population is our largest minority group with many parents unable to understand the English language.  This assures us that all parents are offered the opportunity to be involved in their child’s education. A letter is sent home at the beginning of school that explains how our school operates.  This letter includes times school begins and ends, where cars and buses load and unload, and other important facts about the operation of our school.  It also discusses our PTO and Parent Advisory Council that coordinates our school and parent programs.  At registration, all parents are afforded the opportunity to become involved in our Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) and have input in our activities in parental involvement of programs and events through school calendars, newsletters, office letters, telephone calls, newspaper, cable TV, invitations, and the school web page.

Description of Procedures Employed to Allow Parents to Make and Submit Comment of Dissatisfaction with the School Parent Involvement Plan to the LEA

Parent’s needs survey allows parents to make and submit their comments, approval or disapproval with our Parent Involvement Plan.  They are also informed at orientation, in the school-wide document, and on the website that they can also make comments if they disagree with any aspect or component of the Boaz City School System Title 1 Plan and the Boaz Intermediate School-Wide Title 1 Plan which includes the Parental Involvement Plan.

 Description of the School-Parent Compact

The School- Parent Compact is a voluntary agreement between the home and school.  It describes what the school’s responsibilities and the parent’s responsibilities are for improved student academic achievement.  This compact, available in English and Spanish is sent home at the beginning of each school year for parent and student signatures.  Parental signatures signify their agreement with our compact and a commitment of involvement with the school to insure a positive, productive school experience for their child.  Prior to sending this contract home, we send a letter explaining the No Child Left Behind Act, our Title I program and our Learning Compact.  This is strictly for parent clarification and understanding. School-Parent Compacts describes the school’s responsibility to provide high-quality curriculum and instruction in

a supportive and effective learning environment that enables the children served under this part to meet the state’s student performance standards, and the ways in which each parent will be responsible for supporting their child’s learning.

Description of How the School Will Build Capacity for Parental Involvement

Boaz Intermediate School ensures the effective and continuous involvement of parents and supports a partnership among all stakeholders to provide students the opportunity for high academic success.  In order to achieve this we shall:

·       Provide opportunities to understand state academic and achievement standards, state and local assessments and individual student progress through annual Title 1 meeting, parent conferences and parent-teacher discussions

·        Provide materials for all stakeholders on continuous partnerships for improved student achievement

·       Actively involve parents as partners in their child’s education

·       Provide professional development to faculty and staff in techniques to engage parents in student learning

·       Ensure, to the extent possible, that information sent home is in a language and format parents can understand

·       Recruit parents and guardians as volunteers within the school to assist in education and training of all students

In order to provide and to support the partnership with student, parents and our stakeholders to enhance student learning Boaz Intermediate School may:

·       Establish a district-wide parental involvement coordinator to work between all Boaz schools

·       Conduct workshops or seminars to train our parents on involvement

·       Conduct meetings at a variety of times to maximize opportunities for parents to participate in school related activities

·       Develop a school brochure to promote Boaz Intermediate School.  These will be placed in the local Chamber of Commerce offices and distributed to all students.

·       Develop a monthly school calendar. All school activities, programs, etc., will be posted on this calendar.  A copy of the calendar will be sent home with all Boaz Intermediate School students.

·       Enhance our coordination with local churches, agencies and community groups to assist in meeting the needs of families with clothes and etc.

·       Provide parental literacy training if all other sources are exhausted

·       Finance  reasonable and necessary expenses associated with local parental involvement activities for school-related meetings

Description of How School Will Ensure Provision of Opportunities for Participation of Parents in a Language That Can Be Easily Understood

Boaz Intermediate affords the opportunities of participation for all parents, including those with limited English proficiency or with disabilities.  Our information is presented in a user friendly language and format that any parent can understand.  This includes handbooks, newsletters, and school communications. We will conduct a separate ELL parent orientation to provide our ELL parents in their native language through translation, an introduction of our school, various offerings and programs available, state content standards, NCLB and Title I information.  We will inform them of school and board policies, and explain how to monitor their child’s educational progress and how to work with teachers to ensure academic success.  We will encourage a close school/community relationship by recruiting parents, guardians, and community stakeholders as school volunteers to assist in classrooms and throughout our school.    Home visits, conversations, or telephone calls may be made with the use of our translator, if necessary.  We want all parents to be involved at Boaz Intermediate.  This requirement is performed in a timely manner, in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Description of How Parents’ Right-to-Know Is Met

All parents are sent the “Parents Right-to-Know” letter informing them that they may request the professional qualifications of their child’s teacher, such as being highly qualified.  This requirement is performed in a timely manner, in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act in Section 1111 (h) (6). 

Description of How the We Provide Individual Student Academic Assessment Results

Boaz Intermediate School utilizes several methods in communicating individual progress and test results to parents.  Interpretation of testing materials can be difficult to understand.  A pre-registration day during the summer enables administration and teachers to interpret standardized tests scores and discuss results with parents.  Open House and Family Reading Night give faculty and staff opportunity to communicate with parents.  Scheduled parent-teacher conferences provide other opportunities for teachers and parents to discuss a child’s performance and academic achievements.  Schoolwide results are shared with parents through our State of the School letter sent home each fall. Boaz Intermediate will provide school performance     

profiles that show progress and individual student results and an interpretation of results to parents. This information will be disbursed through report cards, A.R.M.T.  scores, WIDA Access test scores, progress reports, SuccessMaker progress reports, Accelerated Reader and Math reports, STAR reports, Math Facts in a Flash parent reports, individual Parent/Teacher conferences, small group and grade-level meetings.