School Year: 2024-2025

School: Wilkesboro Elementary School

Date Submitted: August 13, 2024

This plan applies to Wilkesboro Elementary School. It describes how we will apply WCS Policy 1310/4002 which can be found on the WCS website. Wilkesboro Elementary School is committed to helping all learners reach their full potential. We understand that our families, school staff, and community work together to make this happen. This policy shows how we plan to accomplish this task.

Policy Involvement

Describe your plan to involve parents in the development of this policy and how you intend to document their participation and feedback.

The Title I Parental Involvement Policy is developed based on feedback and support from stakeholders. The School Leadership Team collaborates with the PTO executive team and the Parent Advisory Team to create the plan and discuss ways to share and seek feedback from parents. WES parent representatives attend meetings of the School Leadership Team and of WCS district Title I team. Meetings are documented with agendas, sign-in sheets, and minutes.

At the start of the school year, WES will meet with parents for our annual Title I meeting. In August, teachers will conduct individual family conferences at a time that is convenient for parents. During these meetings, we will discuss: our Title I school status, the rights of Title I parents, the Parent and Family Engagement Plan, our curriculum and academic standards, assessments, and grade level expectations. We will share information detailing our annual Title I plan, offering suggestions for how to be more engaged, and providing opportunities to sign up to participate on the PTO & parent advisory team and become a volunteer. We will solicit specific feedback on our implementation of the parent engagement plan and will review family compacts.

Meetings will be offered throughout the day and evenings across a series of days and after working hours for the convenience of stakeholders. Some meetings may be held virtually when requested. All information will be provided in a language and format understandable to families, and interpreters will be available for support and clarification during these meetings. Each meeting will be documented with an agenda and sign-in sheet.

Shared Responsibility for High Student Academic Achievement

Describe your plan to develop your school compact and gain meaningful collaboration with families.

The school-parent compact is a communication tool to support achievement for parents, staff, and students. The compact is an agreement on how each person will support each other in ensuring that the student is successful. Our school leadership team solicits feedback from parents and discusses and revises the compact annually in collaboration with the parent advisory team and PTO officers. The parent/student handbook, the Parent and Family Engagement Plan, and other documentation will be reviewed during our first PTO and parent advisory team meeting. Teachers will discuss the school compact, agreements, and expectations during conferences with families. The final draft will be distributed in our parent/student handbook along with acknowledgment pages. We maintain an open-door policy throughout the year, and parents are welcome to visit classrooms and our office for collaboration.

WES values the participation of all parents. Teachers will communicate with weekly newsletters (in a translatable format) to help parents stay informed of activities and events and access materials for use at home. In addition, WES holds regular parent conferences each quarter and when requested by families.

Building Capacity for Involvement

Describe how your school will provide programs to assist parents in building capacity to be involved in their child's education.

We invite all parents to family night events at least four times each year during the evening. During these events, we review current progress, listen to feedback, discuss curriculum and school happenings, provide opportunities for parent engagement, offer student demonstrations and performances, and provide connections with our PTO. This year, these events will occur on 8/22-23, 9/26, 10/17, 12/5, 4/3 and 5/1. Our school leadership team and the PTO Executive and Parent Advisory Team meet monthly. Invitations to these meetings will be posted on our website, newsletter, and Remind to encourage participation. WES will conduct parent conferences throughout the year at times that are convenient to families. Interpreters will be available for these meetings when needed.

Accessibility

Describe how you plan to make all of these programs accessible to all of the parents at your school.

We communicate with all parents through a variety of ways -- weekly phone calls via School Messenger, weekly newsletter via Smore (translatable), written invitations, and digital invitations on the school website, Remind, Instagram, and Facebook. Our Remind and Facebook pages provide two-way communication via messaging. Each teacher has a Remind account and encourages all families to connect for direct messaging. All digital platforms provide accessibility and can be translated into many languages. In addition, written invitations and weekly phone calls home are shared in English and Spanish (our primary second language). Our school webpage is ADA-compliant and provides access to the visually impaired population. WES has an interpreter who attends school meetings, makes phone calls, has a posted weekly schedule, and is available as needed.

Funding

Describe how your Title I Parent and Family Engagement funds will be used to support these efforts.

We will use Title I funds to secure school/home folders for two-way communication, to provide family car tags for safe, easy access to our campus, and to print student handbooks and yearly calendars for every student. We also use Title I funds to enrich and enhance students' learning by securing instructional materials, purchasing software and supplies, purchasing computer equipment, providing professional development, providing after-school tutoring, and employing additional staff for tutoring.

This document was jointly developed by the WES School Leadership Team and the PTO Executive and Parent Advisory Team. Meetings with parents are documented with agendas, sign-in sheets, and minutes. For copies of any of the documentation described, please contact the principal or Title I Coordinator at 336-838-4261.