School/Community Relations Analysis/Cultural Scan of ...



School/Community Relations Analysis/Cultural Scan of Cornwall-Lebanon School District and Project ImplementationCarlos Carmona, MS, NCSPCornwall-Lebanon School DistrictMillersville UniversityAuthor NoteThis project is part of the requirements for EDLD 614The first part of this paper is the Midterm; the second part is the Final which starts on page 8 (Project Implementation).School/Community Relations Analysis/Cultural Scan of Cornwall-Lebanon School District and Project ImplementationThe Cornwall-Lebanon School District (CLSD) is located in the south-central part of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The district is composed of the townships of South Lebanon, North Cornwall, West Cornwall, and North Lebanon, in addition to the boroughs of Cornwall and Mount Gretna, and a portion of the city of Lebanon known as Fairview Heights Annex. In total, the school district spans 70 square miles comprised of more than 31,000 residents. CLSD has a student population of approximately 4,700. With such a student population, the Cornwall-Lebanon School District is the largest of six school districts in Lebanon County. Located centrally to the county, the Lebanon County Career and Technology Center is located within its boundaries. Among the communities and industries within the school district: retirement communities, nursing homes and personal care communities, Lebanon Seaboard Corporation, New Penn Motor Express, Inc., GPU Energy, AES Ironwood (natural gas power plant), the Daniel Weaver Company (Lebanon bologna), several smaller companies, several business parks and many excellent farming operations. A community-based educational foundation, the Falcon Foundation, supports and enhances educational and enrichment opportunities (social, cultural, and athletic) for all people in the Cornwall-Lebanon community (Cornwall-Lebanon School District, n.d.). With so many constituents, CLSD has developed a District Comprehensive Plan 2015- 2018 (DCP) which enables communication and collaboration, encourages shared practices and resources, and certifies that every stakeholder is working toward common goals (Cornwall-Lebanon School District, n.d.). The ultimate goal of the district is “to empower students to reach their individual potential.” The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of CLSD’s school-community relations within the context of Epstein (2009) six types of involvement that nurture school, family, and community partnerships as well as partnership-building principals. To this end, this paper will identify strengths and weaknesses and propose an action plan for areas of improvement.OverviewOne of the shared values, of a total of 10, identified by CLSD in the District Comprehensive Plan includes the community. CLSD states that it is committed to “promoting active parental and community involvement which create a healthy district culture.” This is a vital value because research indicates a strong relationship between family involvement and improved academic performance (Appalachia Educational Laboratory at Edvantia, 2005). There are many ways for schools to strengthen their partnerships with families and the community. Epstein (p. 14, 2009) proposes six types of involvement that helps educators develop more comprehensive programs of school and family partnerships: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning, at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. The DCP has listed several activities and strategies to promote the partnership between schools, families, and community. An analysis of how these activities and strategies fit into Epstein’s (2009) six types of involvement and partnership-creating approaches is critical. By doing so, school district can add to the partnership efforts through the identification of areas of need and/or improvement.The District Comprehensive Plan mentions that all grade levels have provided activities that has strengthen relationships between school personnel, parents and communities. A similar assessment is concluded in the areas of home/family communication. The school provides newsletters, school calendar, student handbook, Skyward Parent Portal. These activities fall into Epstein’s Communication type of involvement. In this format, the partnership happens with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communication.CLSD’s mission statement is to empower students to reach their individual potential. To that end, the district utilizes a school social worker to connect students and their families to community resources. CLSD has community coordination via child care, after school programs, youth workforce development programs, and tutoring. CLSD also states a desire to empower educators to work effectively with parents and community partners. New teacher inductees will tour our community and learn about its diversity.? These forms of activities entail Epstein’s Collaborating with the Community with it efforts in the coordination of community resources and services for students, families, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.The District Comprehensive Plan committee has identified needs related to family and community connections with schools. The committee believes that continued efforts to work effectively with parents and community is needed. They noted that while the district staff members are happy with the level of support provided by parents and community, the committee believes that improvement in this area is possible. Another area identified is the increase in the level of engagement of all stakeholders within the district. Part of the goals of CLSD is to fully ensure each member of the district community promotes, enhances and sustains a shared vision of positive school climate and ensures family and community support of student participation in the learning process. CSLD delineated several strategies to improve and promote school-community relations. To buttress the level of support provided by parents and community, the school district plans a number of activities aimed at strengthening school community relationships. By engaging in these activities, the hope is that it will promote a shared vision as well as nurture a pride within the school community.? CLSD wants to continue to build business and school district partnerships. They want to promote projects and activities where schools work together with businesses to develop programs to help ready students for work/careers.? CLSD wants to use social media and other communication tools extensively to communicate the district's mission, vision, values, goals, activities, safety topics, etc. CLSD indicated that they want to review existing community relations activities and make changes in aim of improving those programs. Additionally, the district wants to work with area businesses to create job shadowing opportunities for the students of the district.?Finally, a goal of the district is to work with the local Chamber of Commerce. By working with the members of the Chamber of Commerce, CLSD hopes to develop new internship and cooperative opportunities, identify curricular needs and offer real life business experiences to students.?Summary: Areas of Strengths and Improvement of the Existing School/Family/Community PartnershipsCLSD is to be commended for the development of a District Comprehensive Plan that includes the importance of parental and community involvement. The district understands that such stakeholders help create a healthy educational culture and vibrant community. The district also recently hired a social worker to help connect students and their families to community and state resources. The social worker is instrumental with helping families navigate the labyrinth of bureaucracies. The district wants to continue to do better in his efforts to strengthen relationship with parent and other community members at the school level. CLSD has key strategies to reach their parent-community relationship goals. Among the strategies are on-going activities to entice community members to partake in the milieu of the school communities, partner with business to help prepare students for the world of work, use social media to promote and brand itself, and collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce to enhance the curriculum and provide real-life experience in business to students. While these endeavors are beneficial, there are some gaps that exists in the parental and community involvement objective. The activities that were listed above, both ongoing and aspirational, tend to focus on the Epstein involvement types of Communicating and Collaborating with the Community. In the quest to continually improve the quality of education to its students, I propose several activities to help meet the identified gaps.CLSD can improve in developing four (4) of the six (6) types of involvements that are not very developed: Parenting, Volunteering, Learning at Home, and Decision-Making.Parenting involves assisting families in understanding child and adolescent development and in setting home conditions that support children as students at each grade level. Parenting also helps school personnel understand the families they serve (Epstein, p. 152, 2009). By engaging with parenting students improve attendance when families are informed of policies and involved in meeting attendance goals. Besides the Title 1 Reading nights for parents that exist, CLSD should provide workshops for parents to help children improve their math skills. Such workshops allow the educators to explain to parents the new math standards and tests and to demonstrate and discuss how math skills are taught to student. Parents who participate in the math workshops indicated a change in their viewpoints about learning mathematics (Eisenreich & Andreasen, 2016). Such workshops gave parents the chance to involve be in mathematics in ways similar to the way their children learn in the classroom, beliefs about mathematics were challenged. Parents learned effective ways to help their children and allow them to come up with their own strategies. Volunteering is also a vital component of strengthening the partnership between school, families, and community. In this type of involvement, the focus is on the improvement of recruitment, training, and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at the school and in other locations to support students and school programs. Within Volunteering, there are three areas that parents and community members can engage: (1) in schools or classrooms (as aides, tutors, coaches, lectures, chaperones, boosters, mentors, etc.), (2) for schools or classrooms (assisting school programs and student activities from any location), and (3) as audiences (attend assembles, performances, sports events, recognition and award ceremonies, celebrations, etc.). At CLSD, parents and community are more likely to volunteer as audiences. There is a need for quality volunteering efforts to focus on getting family and other community members to volunteer in and for schools. A benefit of activities to cultivate volunteers is that students gain academic skills that are tutored or taught by volunteers. In this way, the work that teachers do with students is enriched by volunteer expertize. An initiative to be intentional in cultivating volunteers can involve having school counselors/school psychologist utilize parents to do filing, answer phone calls, organize meetings. Furthermore, parents could help set up tutoring services, create and maintain guidance website for the district. Parents could bring their varied talents and specializations and interests to the benefit of guidance services (Griffin and Steen, 2010).?A missing type of involvement is that of Learning at Home which entails the involvement of families with their children in learning at home, including homework, other curriculum-related activities, and individual course and program decisions. While some of these activities can happen during parent-teacher conferences and during individual meetings with parents, CLSD would benefit from having a robust and intentional goal of helping parents help support academic goals in the home. These types of activities help students complete more homework in specific subjects. A suggestion to meet this type of family involvement is to institute monthly a morning activity, perhaps prior to the beginning of the school, during which parents have the opportunity to meet with teachers, administrators, and other parents. Parents can engage in discussion with educators on school activities as testing, homework, and reading programs. (Epstein & Salinas, 2004).There are school activities that were not noted on the DCP that should be strengthened and utilized for the betterment of students. For example, each school has a Parent-Teacher Organization which can be capitalized as it is one of Epstein’s types of involvement: Decision Making. With this type of involvement involves the inclusion of families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy. CLSD needs to build upon parent participation and shared leadership. By doing so, students will benefit, since schools are enriched by becoming aware that families’ views are represented in school decisions as well as benefits linked to policies enacted by parent organizations and committees. Project ImplementationTo begin an intentional effort to reach for partnerships in a meaningful way in their children’s education, Ebenezer Elementary (Kindergarten through 5th Grade) will become the pilot site for the proposed parent/community projects. This site was selected because the writer of this paper is the Learning Facilitator for the school and has the time and flexibility to coordinate the projects with its staff. There are two projects that will occur during the upcoming 2018-2019 school year: (a) Family Math Day, and (b) Volunteering at the school. These types of activities help address the gaps that the school district has on the types of involvement critical for school and community partnerships on a local level: Parenting, Learning at Home, Volunteering and Decision-Making. These projects will give the school district a blueprint for how to bring to life school and community partnerships efforts to school in a practical, low cost and feasible manner. The first project involves the creation of Family Math Day (based on National Network of Partnership Schools, John Hopkins University, 2009) at Ebenezer Elementary. This day will have games and activities focusing on mathematics. Parents will be invited to participate in a morning that is replete with math fun throughout all parts of the school: in the hallways, classroom, gymnasium, and cafeteria. The purpose of this event is to provide a lift to the math achievement at the school. For example, on the PVASS, some of the 3-year average performance for Math 4th grade has shown moderate evidence that the school did not meet the standard for PA Academic Growth. The school will form a committee with a representative from each grade level, Special Areas, and Parent volunteers to develop a morning that is filled with practical and entertaining math games for the purpose of demonstrating how math is relevant in many life areas. Furthermore, the activities would encourage parents to do math activities in the home in an approachable way. The committee members, along with their respective grade-level team members, will prioritize games and activities that are of little cost to parents to replicate at home. The math activity morning can help stimulate parents with creative math ideas for the home life. The event registration can begin at 8:30 am. Each parent will receive a folder with a list and location of the games. Members from the Parent-Teacher Organization will serve as volunteers helping staff with registration tables and running the games with grade level teachers. Since the PTO is part of the planning, they will indeed have a voice in the Decision-Making component mentioned by Epstein as critical in the school and community partnership. Responsible Cedar Crest High School students, supervised by an office staff person, can provide childcare for parents who request it. Throughout the morning, parents move from one activity to the next with their children, stopping to play a math game/activity. All of the math games will have a recommendation for grade and skill levels. In this way, parents can decide what activities are relevant to their children’s needs. Inherently, some parents will not be able to attend. Each teacher, whether they are in charge of a game or not, will have students help with their station. The Family Math Day at Ebenezer Elementary will not be an expensive endeavor. The event occurs during regular school hours which means that teachers are not paid extra. The parents who will participate in manning the games and activities with the teachers are all volunteers. The Cedar Crest High School students will also be volunteers. The office staff person who supervise the childcare is also paid for the day as normal. The anticipated cost will involve the materials necessary for the conducting of the games and activities with the parents. Since, the purpose of the planning committee is to do little to no cost activities, the anticipated cost will be minimum. The principal can allocate a budget of $250 to the committee. It will be the responsibility of the committee to operate within such budget. The anticipated timeline will begin the fall of 2018 and the event will occur in January 2019 (see Table 1).The Principal and the Learning Facilitator will ask for staff representative from each grade level and a representative from the Special Areas department. This request takes place during the first staff meeting with a talk about the importance and research finding that demonstrate how parent involvement spurs on student achievement. The Principal and the Learning Facilitator will also contact the Parent-Teacher Organization to solicit a volunteer to partake in the committee for the Math Fun Day. Once the committee is formed a couple of meetings occur to formulate the structure and logistics of the day and to brainstorm games/activities. The committee will talk to their teacher teams to gather additional ideas. The committee develops a schedule with the game stations and the teachers/volunteers who will be in charge of the activities. Then, the event is advertised to parents via a myriad of forums including Skyward texting, school newsletters, flyer given to all students, Remind app, and the school website. Concurrently, with the promotion, each person who is assigned to a station prepares the materials needed for the game and activity. The day prior to the event, the school morning announcement will remind students about the event. Parents will be texted a reminder. During the event, the office will maintain a tally of the amount of adults and families that attended via the registration data. After the Family Math Day, a survey link will be sent to parents to solicit their input about the day as well as gather suggested ideas for future parent/community events.Table 1Family Math Day at Ebenezer Elementary TimelineAction StepTimelinePerson ResponsibleFormation of CommitteeFall 2018Principal/Learning FacilitatorLogistics meetingFall 2018Committee/ Learning FacilitatorParent volunteer solicitation/PTO meeting presentation/Faculty meeting presentationFall 2018Principal, Learning Facilitator; and CommitteeGame and Activity brainstorming meetingWinter 2018CommitteeAdvertising of Event to parentsWinter 2018CommitteeEvent PrepWinter 2018Committee with grade level teachersFamily Math Day at Ebenezer ElementaryWinter 2018Teachers and Parent VolunteersSurvey Sent to parentsWinter 2018Principal and TeachersThe second pilot project would involve the Volunteering type of involvement for effective school-community partnership. Specifically, Ebenezer Elementary will solicit community volunteers for the school. Instead of doing filing paperwork or answering the telephones, volunteer parents help to maintain the guidance website, and to pinpoint community resources. Since all parents have some form of expertise, the Learning Facilitator can utilize their knowledge to help guidance services and academic areas within the school district. A solicitation for volunteers is sent out to interested parties who give the school details about their areas of interests, expertise, and passions. A Volunteer Interest Survey, based on Rhodes (n.d.; Appendix A) can be tailored to include a variety of opportunities available at the school. To help design the survey, an email can be sent to the Ebenezer faculty with the Rhodes survey. The faculty and staff can provide the Learning Facilitator with ideas for volunteering jobs that are relevant and needed for their respective areas. The Learning Facilitator could help connect such volunteers with the appropriate school personnel and area that would be of benefit to the enrichment of student academic achievement and the school functioning. For example, if a retired grandparent has knowledge about firefighting, the physical education teacher could have this person talk about exercises that helped in the job. Therefore, this “plugging” of volunteers can enrich the curriculum and make the academic content be relevant to the students. This solicitation can occur quarterly via parent letters sent home, advertised in the school newsletter sent to parents, texted via the Skyward system, and the school website.This volunteer program will help the school go beyond the parent-attendance of events for the school. The cost of this volunteer program is minimal because parents, relatives, and community members are volunteering their time. Each volunteer is responsible for paying and acquiring the necessary clearances. The school district also has scholarships for those volunteers who would have financial hardships. The Learning Facilitator can help the potential volunteers navigate the various agencies in charge of the criminal check, child abuse clearance check, and FBI finger-printing process. The copies, newsletter, and technology forums for the promotion and printing of the form are part of the school’s established budget. During the fall of 2018, the Learning Facilitator will email faculty and staff members, the Volunteer Interest Survey to gather ideas for shaping the final survey. The survey needs to be tailored to actual needs that enrich the learning environment for students. Once the survey is finalized, copies will be sent home as well as distributed to the PTO. The volunteer program will be mentioned every month via the school newsletter. As the applications come in, the Learning Facilitator will decide with the Principal if the volunteer(s) can meet a need in the building. When necessary the faculty and staff will be sent generic information about a potential volunteer to see if there is a way to plug a volunteer with a school need. When the volunteer applicant is needed, the Learning Facilitator will contact the volunteer with the school opportunity. Interested volunteers will need to provide proper clearances before volunteering. This process will occur throughout the school year (see Table 2). Applications are received on a rolling basis. Table 2Volunteering Project TimelineAction StepTimelinePerson ResponsibleSolicit volunteering ideas/areas from faculty and staffFall 2018Learning FacilitatorFormulate Volunteer Interest SurveyFall 2018Learning FacilitatorSend out Surveys to all parents; advertise in NewsletterFall 2018Learning FacilitatorAssign parents volunteer task; Acquire clearances from volunteersFall 2018; ongoing quarterlyCommitteeSolicit volunteers via Skyward; Remind AppWinter 2018PrincipalTogether, these two projects at Ebenezer Elementary spotlight on the need for school and community partnerships. It provides a tangible and practical way of being intentional about the school districts efforts to form meaningful partnerships for the betterment of students. Key to these undertakings is to invite the school district’s community relations person to document the activities as a way to promote it to the other schools. Also, the local news media should be invited so that the community is aware that the school is looking for the community to help the school in its mission of educating students. The partnerships form between the staff and the parents will provide a positive reinforcement about the power of having partners for the betterment of student achievement. Such projects help to engage in a proactive outreach focused to engage parents and convey to the community that the school needs them. The community is a vital participant in the business of schools as contributing members of children’s education and advocacy team.References BIBLIOGRAPHY Appalachia Educational Laboratory at Edvantia. (2005). Linking Student Achievement to School, Family, and Community Involvement. Research Brief.Cornwall-Lebanon School District. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved October 09, 2017, from Cornwall-Lebanon School District. (n.d.). District Level Comprehensive Plan. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from , H. h., & Andreasen, J. J. (2016). Parent workshops focused on mathematics knowledge for parenting (MKP): Shifting beliefs about learning mathematics. Conference Papers -- Psychology Of Mathematics & Education Of North America, 1196-1203. Epstein, J. L. (2009). School, family, and community partnerships: your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks (Calif.): Corwin.Epstein, J. L., & Salinas, K. C. (2004). Partnering with Families and Communities. Educational Leadership, 61(8), 12-18. Griffin, D., & Steen, S. (2010). School-Family-Community Partnerships: Applying Epsteins Theory of the Six Types of Involvement to School Counselor Practice. Professional School Counseling, 13(4), 218-226. doi:10.5330/psc.n.2010-13.218National Network of Partnership Schools, John Hopkins University. (2009). Family and Community Involvement in Math. Retrieved from , D. (n.d.). Grab a File: Volunteer Surveys. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from survey is entitled: Volunteer Interest SurveyAppendix AGot2? PTO Volunteer Interest SurveyPlease provide us some information about your family’s interests & talents and the time you are available to help out. Please complete this form & return it to the school by September __, 2018). You will be contacted about how you can help. Thank You!I AM INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: GENERALMake copies or file Library worker Lunchroom duty Recess duty help OTHER: PTO PhotographerPARENT/SCHOOL COMMUNICATION:Copy & Distribute LettersHELP FROM HOME:Phoning Mail or FaxDecorate Santa Shop gift bagsMake homemade Party FavorsOther:CURRICULUM & ENRICHMENT:Read to studentsFUNDRAISINGHelp with Box tops, etc.Door Prize DonationsCLASSROOM HELP:Chaperone, field trip Assist with a party Classroom activity Bulletin boardEntertain (music, etc.)TutoringSPECIAL EVENTS Family Night Book Fair Fall Carnival Santa ShopValentine’s DARE/Red Ribbon Week Field Day Honor Roll I WILL BE AN EVENT CHAIR I WILL BE A TEAM LEADER:I CAN DO THIS “JOB”:Turn It Off Week Family Night Fall Carnival, ________________Santa Shop Valentine’s ActivitiesDonations Staff AppreciationLibrary Workers Staff Birthday PatrolPTO CorrespondencePPP Reward BagsList: I CAN HELP REWARD OUR STAFF: The PTO is committed to recognizing our staff all year long. Please take the time to show your appreciation throughout the year with a note, phone call or e-mail. I will work “Bus Driver Drive Thru” in these months:I can provide food for these monthly events (REMEMBER: feed 6 to 12, in a disposable container labeled with your and your child’s name, provide recipe):I CAN DONATE A NEEDED ITEM: Strapped for time or have multiple children? Donate a needed item to the school. See the Staff Needs List for items your child’s teacher or other staff members need. I HAVE A UNIQUE TALENT OR SKILL THAT I’D LIKE TO SHARE (photographer, artist, graphic designer, gardener, etc.):I HAVE ACCESS TO A UNIQUE RESOURCE THAT MIGHT BE A GREAT FIT FOR THE SCHOOL: (list)The Days, Times and Types of Activities Best For Me Are: (Please check all that apply) The School Day At School Weekday Evenings After School From Home WeekendsThere are many opportunities for service at Elementary, come work with us to find the one that best fits you.Your name: Child’s Name: E-mail:Child’s Name: Phone: Day ( ) Evening ( ) Check best time to contact you.Send me an invite to the Elementary School PTO Facebook Page.I am already signed up for the page.No thanks.Last year we voted to divide the services the PTO provides the school into smaller, “bite sized” bits. The aim of this is two-fold, to increase the NUMBER of parents participating while DECREASING the amount of time they need to volunteer for. The goal is to keep it around the 2 hours commitment we ask each parent to make. There are some jobs that do take more time, and some less. We even have jobs that don’t require coming to school AT ALL! For a description of the jobs available, see our Facebook page.There is something to fit everyone’s time & talents! ................
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