Gov. Heineman, NASB Recognize Three School Districts for Parental Involvement Efforts

(LaVista, Neb.) Gov. Dave Heineman today honors three school districts selected to receive the Governor’s Education Initiative Award for Parental Involvement. The Garden County, St. Paul and Grand Island Public School Districts will be honored for their efforts to engage parents in daily school activities and their child’s education.

School districts are being recognized as part of the State Education Conference, sponsored by the Nebraska Association of School Boards and the Nebraska Association of School Administrators State Education Conference. District representatives will discuss the impact greater parental involvement has on student achievement during a session with conference goers later today.

“I commend these school districts for their commitment to parental involvement,” Gov. Heineman said. “Parents play a critical role in education. These districts have gone beyond the traditional parent-teacher conference to develop innovative ways of welcoming parents into their buildings. The end result is that parents, teachers and administrators have developed stronger relationships are helping students accomplish their goals while also encouraging better communication with school district leaders.”

Garden County Public Schools were recognized in the category of school districts with up to 499 students. This district has created opportunities for greater parent involvement using a combination of traditional approaches and new communications tools to seek greater parental involvement.

Parent-teacher conferences, evening open houses and a new Parent Advisory Council, which provides a concrete way for parents to discuss issues, have welcomed parents into local schools. A phone message system and Internet-based software programs give parents access to information on their child’s academic progress and convenient way to get school updates.

In the category for districts of 500 to 999 students, St. Paul Public Schools was honored for programs that help students succeed in the major transitions of K-12 education. The district uses Read at Home Backpacks to help pre-school and kindergarten students develop literacy and reading comprehension skills by encouraging them to read with families.

The district also helps encourage students to pursue college and higher education through a unit that helps identify potential careers of interest among incoming freshman. Students and their parents develop a four-year plan for graduation and beyond. The district also uses a study buddy program that pairs younger students with a parent, grandparent or other community volunteers to help students develop study skills at an earlier age. Study buddies meet twice a week for 10 weeks in the fall and spring.

The Grand Island School District was chosen from districts with 5,000 students or more. The district uses a phone message system that allows administrators to update families on school closings and events, and in the event of an emergency. It also sends reminders about activities, which has helped increase parent attendance at school functions.

Grand Island Schools has also used funding from the U.S. Department of Education to hire a team of social workers for its 14 elementary schools who are trained to teach parenting skills through a program developed by Boys Town. In addition to conducting training sessions for more than 200 people, social workers made home visits, provided parent counseling services, and offered referrals to community resources and educational programs.

In addition, Grand Island Public Schools started a new outreach effort this year by adding a welcome center to the Central District Public Health Department. The welcome center is staffed with bilingual parents and others who help new English Language Learner students and their parents by evaluating students for proper class placement and helping families with school registration and other services.

For the second year, NASB joined with the Governor in recognizing the work of school districts that encourage parents to get engaged. Each school district receives $1,000, courtesy of All Lines Interlocal Cooperative Aggregate Pool (ALICAP) which sponsored the award this year.

School districts were selected by a panel of school board members, superintendents and the head of the Nebraska Parent Involvement and Research Center. The Governor’s parental involvement award is based on criteria developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the National Parent Teacher Association.

In addition to the 2008 honorees, four school districts were recognized by the panel for their achievements, including: Bellevue, Millard and Silver Lake Public Schools, as well as Cozad City Schools.