Purpose of this Policy and Compact

Efforts will be made to clearly articulate the school’s intentions to engage with and involve parents/caregivers in the educational process.

Mount Vernon Wood Elementary School (MVWES) is a Title I school within Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) and utilizes the Title I grant to improve student achievement and help all students meet the objectives of the FCPS Program of Studies and the Virginia Standards of Learning. A partnership with families is essential to meeting this goal.

Under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, schools that receive Title I funds are expected to collaborate with families to develop and maintain a parent and family engagement policy that describes the school’s approach to involve families in students’ learning and includes a compact expressing the partnerships among staff, caregivers, and students to reach high academic goals for every student.

A number of the provisions specifically address state or federal expectations for the policy and compact.

This policy and compact is distributed to all caregivers in a language that families can understand. Caregivers have opportunities to provide comments and feedback on this compact through the Principal Advisory Council, Parent Teacher Organization and the school’s website. Comments are also submitted with the school’s policy and compact to FCPS central offices and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). This policy and compact are made available to the broader school community through the school website.

Building Capacity for Involvement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers are actively involved in the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the school’s Title I program, including the following:

• Provide family members a voice in decision-making on committees, such as Principal’s Advisory Council, Monthly Parent Coffees, and the Parent Teacher Organization.
• Engage caregiver input when developing the School Improvement & Innovation Plan (SIIP), Title I Schoolwide Plan, the Title I Parent and Family Engagement Policy and Compact and plans for use of Title I family engagement funding.
• Seek feedback from families on programs within the Title I Schoolwide Plan, offer multiple methods for caregivers to submit comments about programs they may not find satisfactory through the Principal’s Advisory Council meetings, and the Satisfaction Survey, and submit any such comments with the Title I Schoolwide Plan to FCPS central offices.
• Invite family members to help in organizing and executing a variety of school events to build collective ownership, such as Family Markets, Art Shows, and International Night.
• Provide opportunities for caregivers to volunteer within the school in various ways as available, such as reading with students, volunteering in classrooms, during Career Day, and on field trips. 
• Encourage families to take part in annual evaluation of the content and effectiveness of the division-level Title I parent and family engagement policy in order to identify:
  • barriers to greater family participation,
  • ways to help family members be better able to assist in student learning, and
  • strategies to support successful school and family interactions.

Effective Communication with Parents

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive meaningful communication in a timely manner, including the following:

• Use multiple methods of communication to families such as telephone messages, email messages, WhatsApp group through the parent liaison, News You Choose for items including principal messages, monthly meetings with the principal.
• Encourage all caregivers to attend an annual meeting on September 11, 2019 at Back to School Night, to share information about Title I services, explain Title I grant requirements, and inform families of their right to be involved in the school.
• Share school and student performance data with families in ways that seek their idea about how to improve performance toward Virginia’s challenging academic standards, such as Math and Literacy Nights for all grade levels, Advisory Council, and Saturday Academy
• Provide opportunities throughout the year for families to better understand the school’s goals for students and find ways to improve student learning via quarterly Parent Coffees (morning and evening sessions) and discussion during grade level Math and Literacy Nights.
• Maintain resources for caregivers to review student assignments and ongoing communication about student work, such as inclusion of information in weekly take-home envelopes and grade level Blackboard 24/7 sites.
• Provide ongoing feedback on student progress through quarterly progress reports that show specific areas of proficiency and areas for continued growth.
• Hold parent-teacher conferences for all students at least annually in the fall and more often, as needed.

Shared Responsibilities for High Academic Achievement

Efforts will be made to ensure parents/caregivers receive materials, training, and benefits from school partnerships with social and academic services, community-based organizations, and businesses, including the following:

• Hold workshops connecting caregivers to tools and resources, such as How to Read with Students, Responsive Classroom, Using Technology at home, Advanced Academics, Supporting Science at home, and What to do with students over the summer as well as classes in English and to support parenting.
• Offer regular opportunities for families to learn directly from school staff about the school’s academic, behavioral, and social programming through grade level math and literacy nights, and monthly Parent Coffees. 
• Provide ongoing access to resources in and outside of the school, such as providing computers in the Parent Liaison Office.  Additionally, we provide services through Fairfax County Government Social Worker and the Community Liaison.
• Provide mentors for students though FCPS Mentorworks.  
• Provide opportunities to donate and access supplies donated by others, such as backpacks of school supplies at the beginning of the school year, weekend food packs, Thanksgiving and Christmas donations from area foodbanks and churches, and monthly Family Food Markets.
• Leverage partnerships with local businesses and organizations to enhance school programs and events, such as our partnerships with Alfred Street Baptist Church, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, GrandInvolve, Capital Area Food Bank, Walgreens, United Community Ministries, United Way, Booz-Allen Hamilton, Strafford Women, Kids R First, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, and McLean Bible Church.
• Support parents in accessing county and community resources, such as School Readiness, Health Network and other supports available at the Government Center, at the school, and throughout the community.

Welcoming All Families

Efforts will be made to ensure that all parents/caregivers are welcomed and provided opportunities to actively engage within the school, including the following:

• Create a welcoming atmosphere at the school by ensuring that there is someone in the office that is able to communicate with parents for whom English is not their first language, thus reassuring parents that there is always someone in the office to greet and assist visitors in a language that is understood by them.
• Provide resources through the Parent Resource Center to meet the needs of our school community.
   
• Provide interpretation services for parent-teacher conferences, workshops, and meetings.
• Parent Liaison, full time school social worker and psychologist, and Fairfax County social worker are available to support parent’s interactions with both the school community and the larger community.
• Translate or provide interpretation of all school documents and communication to make them accessible in the caregiver’s preferred correspondence language and for those with vision or hearing impairments.
• Support two-way communication between families and staff with the assistance of a parent liaison for translating communications, calling parents to deliver and receive messages, and working with the parent liaison to ensure that parent needs are being met.
• Expand access for family participation in informational meetings and learning sessions through advertising these meetings in a variety of ways including in the Principal’s bi-weekly newsletter, flyers sent home in students’ weekly folders and via email, calling families through Fairfax County Public Schools’ e-Notify and Gov Delivery (News You Choose) systems, and posting information in the main office and on the information board in the lobby.

Compact Provisions

School staff, parents/caregivers, and students must work together to ensure student success.

The staff will:

Provide a high-quality curriculum and instruction that enables students to meet challenging academic standards through the following actions:

• Teach all students according to the state’s challenging standards, using approved curriculum resources.
• Provide ongoing professional development and support to all teachers to ensure effective instructional practices are used in all classrooms.
• Participate in Collaborative Learning Teams to ensure understanding of standard expectations and to develop lessons that allow students to think critically and creatively.

Provide a supportive and effective learning environment for students through the following actions:

• Provide clear expectations for student behavior and academic learning.
• Offer a variety of resources to help students with their learning.
• Work with our grade level teams and educational specialists to problem solve ways to scaffold and differentiate teaching to maximize student learning.
• Offer a Saturday Academy for students who have struggled showing their learning on standardized assessments.
• Use a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) to ensure that students are provided additional opportunities for instruction in areas in which they have not shown mastery.

Provide assistance to caregivers in understanding the school’s program through the following actions:

• Hold an annual meeting to present information on the school’s Title I programs, state and division curriculum and assessments, and the school’s state and federal accountability status.
• Provide multiple opportunities for caregivers to ask questions and give input into the Title I programs through PTO meetings, monthly Community Schools Principal Advisory Council Meetings, and monthly Parent Coffees.
• Family handbook is created and shared with families at the start of the school year.

Build caregivers’ involvement in the school’s Title I program through the following actions:

• Include caregivers as members of the School Innovation & Improvement Planning (SIIP) Committee and as collaborators in developing the Title I Schoolwide Plan and plans for the use of Title I family engagement funds.
• Hold monthly Community Schools Principal Advisory Council Meetings and monthly Parent Coffees with the clinical team.

The parents/caregivers will:

Demonstrate understanding that participation in my child’s education will help his or her achievement through the following actions:

• Participate in decisions related to school programs and my child’s education and share my questions or comments about the programs in my child’s school.
• Volunteer in my child’s classroom or in school activities, as my schedule allows.
• Encourage and support my child’s learning at home and at school.
• Attend conferences with teachers to discuss my child’s learning.
• Encourage my child to borrow books from the school’s Take Home Library to support literacy growth.
• Practice the strategies presented at Math and Literacy Night programs.

The student will:

Share the responsibility to improve my academic learning to achieve the state’s challenging standards through the following actions:

• Get enough sleep every night.
• Come to school every day.
• Always give my best effort and never give up on myself or my learning.
• Work with my classmates to complete learning tasks.
• Give my parents all notes and papers from my teacher.
• Read for at least 20 minutes each day at home.