2009 PPP Ten Year School's Honored
by Vickie Dickneite, Resource Coordinator
April 28, 2009
Blue Springs School District has maintained a strong, active, and rewarding relationship with PPP in the Past ten years. The relationship that began with John Nowlin Elementary has expanded to include James Walker Elementary and Prime Time, the district’s before and after-school care program. The relationship has featured unique, tailor-made experiences that encompassed distinct areas of service such as printed resources for parents and staff, evening informational events for parents, school-wide family nights, grade level club activities and large scale staff in-service/training opportunities. The experiences focused on building student and family health, wellness, and success, including prevention and intervention strategies and services. The PPP relationship has greatly enhanced communication efforts between school and home, made it possible for district staff to more effectively support parents in their roles as educators, and has provided additional opportunities to involve the whole community in assisting children, and their families. The PPP relationship has clearly demonstrated that as parents’ personal involvement increases, they become better informed and more satisfied with the overall school experience. Ultimately, partnering with PPP has helped Blue Springs School District to raise academic achievement through parent involvement. Sam Gilkey and Tony Henderson accepted a marble paperweight and recognition certificate from Vickie Dickneite, PPP Resource Coordinator.
Center School District #58 is committed to building a positive learning environment where parents feel welcome, comfortable communicating with the school, motivated to participate in activities and confident that their input is valued. Over the past ten years all district elementary schools have been actively involved in the PPP Program and have provided various activities for parents and students that have greatly improved relationships between the school and the home. Indian Creek Elementary received a Pearl Award and a VIP Award for parent involvement. Other elementary schools received PPP training and used training materials to enhance learning. Center Elementary, a PPP Certified School, is actively involved in the PPP program and has sponsored several successful parent activities. Some activities include: establishing a Parent Involvement and Community Council (PICC), hosting MAP reading/math carnivals, annual mother, father and grandparent lunches with speakers and informational sessions, and sponsoring gingerbread house and 100 day celebrations with parents actively involved in the projects. Parent involvement in activities continues to grow with more parents attending student activities, parent-teacher conferences and parent meetings. PPP Resource Coordinator Vickie Dickneite presented Shirley Washington and Sharon Nibbelink with the award for Center Schools.
Fredericktown R-I Elementary considers PPP a lifeline between the school and community. PPP brings community support to the school district and has had a tremendous impact on parent involvement. Families are offered the opportunity to participate in numerous events throughout the school year that promote student achievement, parent involvement and school community. PPP is an umbrella for all parent involvement activities and student programs. PPP helps to pull resources and efforts together to make all school programs stronger. The PPP Committee helps to sponsor the fall festival, the school’s only fundraiser, each year. Funds raised help the school to sponsor other events such as Trip Around the World, Luau, Movie Nights, guest speakers, Mom & Me Night, Dad & Me Night, Grandparent’s Day Breakfast, and numerous other activities. PPP continues to grow in Fredericktown with the support of the administration and recent implementation of PPP into the district’s intermediate building for grades 3-5. Working with PPP has enabled Fredericktown to continue to help promote positive and strong community relations and has truly made a difference in the lives of students, staff and parents. Tenna Groom accepted the award from Vickie Dickneite, PPP Resource Coordinator.
Johnson County R-7’s Crest Ridge Elementary set a goal for once monthly Family Reading Nights to involve more parents in the reading process. They feel that if teachers share skills and knowledge to parents about reading literacy, everyone gains. As a result of these Family Reading Nights, parent involvement in all school activities has increased, MAP test scores are improving and overall, the learning environment at the school is positive. Dawnja McCormick accepted the recognition from Vickie Dickneite, PPP Resource Coordinator.
Osage R-3 Fatima has boosted parent involvement these past ten years with the help of a growing Parent/Teacher Organization. Dedicated teachers and parents work together to provide fun learning opportunities for their students, families and community members. One especially successful event has been the Fatima Family Fun Day each spring. Many organizations and volunteers, including a PPP representative, from the area participate with family activities. This annual event receives support from the local fire department, Conservation, Merrell University, Judevine, MO State Highway Patrol, Girl Scouts, and many others. The Fatima PTO has been active in making playground improvements, helping pay for classroom field trips, and helping the teachers with extra expenses, too. Fatima has structured parent/teacher conferences so parents are able to attend during morning, afternoon and evening hours, resulting in an increased attendance rate. Kim Temmen accepted the award from Vickie Dickneite, PPP Resource Coordinator.
Smithton R-VI School District’s PPP chapter hosts a Hot Dog Dinner and Open House Night in August. This is a great way to get parents and children involved and excited for the new school year to begin. Each year, PPP has a community service project. They have collected books to donate to a youth group home, stuffed animals for nursing homes, and Christmas stockings filled with goodies for local nursing homes. This year the school donated 45 pounds of old crayons to the National Crayon Recycling Program. These simple projects have been a great way to foster the involvement of staff, students, parents and the community.
North/Ruth Mercer Elementary in the Warsaw R-IX School District has accomplished many things in the past ten years with PPP. Attendance at Parent/Teacher Conference is consistently above 95% as a building. Conferences and family involvement events are scheduled in the evenings for parent convenience. Back to School Night, Music programs and Santa’s Secret Shop are always well attended. Christmas for Kids is a community project that supplies presents for over 700 children in the county. The North Elementary counselor and district social worker are the main organizers of this massive undertaking. The school staff is involved in donating and working the event. Monthly newsletters contain parenting and homework tips, and an extensive parent library is maintained by the counselor and Title I Director. Parents and staff attend PPP workshops, and parents get more involved with decision making by serving on school committees. John Carleton accepted the award from Vickie Dickneite, PPP Resource Coordinator.
Wellston School District in St. Louis has always been committed to staff development and to parent involvement. At their tenth anniversary as a PPP District, they made a system-wide commitment to parent involvement. Last September, Wellston hired parent liaisons to serve the families in each building in the district. An implementations training session in the district was attended by building administrators, the parent liaisons and their coordinator in addition to the assistant superintendent. The liaisons have been busy this year carrying out their parent involvement plans. Pictured with Wellston staff members are Rosalee Johnson, PPP Coordinator for the St. Louis area, and Dr. Dee Beck, retired Federal Programs Coordinator at DESE, who have been instrumental in supporting Wellston’s recent parent involvement efforts.
For ten years, Willard R-II Schools has had a very successful partnership with PPP. Over the years, PPP has been instrumental in training the staff of Willard Schools in parent involvement programs and activities. Willard Schools have been very successful in implementing a parent involvement program that has been recognized by PPP numerous times. They have received the Best Place to Work Award, Pearl Awards, two VIP awards, and been honored as a Certified PPP School. Willard Schools have held many parent involvement activities including: MAP nights, Math and Science Nights, Parent Appreciation Dance, Make It Take It Night, Parent Resource Center, and many others. Willard Schools plan to continue working with PPP to enhance their parent involvement program. PPP Resource Coordinator Vickie Dickneite presented Chrysta Forrest with the award.
