BALD KNOB MIDDLE SCHOOL School Parent Involvement Policy

District Bald Knob Public Schools School Improvement Status Needs Improvement Grade Levels 6-8 Parent Involvement Facilitator Michelle Bonds Are you Title I Schoolwide? Yes Percent of free and reduced lunch 67% Parent Involvement Committee Members Misty Hepner Jonathon Harrell Brendan Roberts Stetson Smithson Desihrea Williams Angela Throckmorton Belinda Harrell Jennifer Pierce Malinda Byerly Theresa Smithson Ashlee Roberts James Richardson Michelle Bonds

Parent Student Student Student Parent Parent Parent Parent Parent Parent Parent / Alumni Teacher Parent Involvement Facilitator

List various communication strategies used in your school to provide additional information to parents and to increase parental involvement in supporting classroom instruction. 1.

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The school will distribute student handbooks at registration. Parents are required to read and verify receipt of the student handbook. The school has created and will maintain a school website which contains all district information. The website also provides links to internet resources for parents (www.baldknobschools.org). The school will provide online grade report software called HAC to access grades and other needed academic information. Teachers are required to send reports to HAC weekly. The school will send progress reports home approximately every 4 1/2 weeks. The school will provide educational materials that will be available in the library and sent home when necessary. The school will offer internet access to the cafeteria lunch account and options to pay online, if desired. The school will offer parent conferences anytime throughout the school year by an appointment. Parents may meet with individual teachers or the entire teaching team if needed. The school will offer the option of parent and student contact through social media. Facebook is used to communicate with parents and students on the Bald Knob Middle School Facebook page. The school will use the One Call System to inform parents and guardians of upcoming events of changes

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affecting their students. The school will place a parent survey on the website to keep us informed of parents' perceptions of the Parent Involvement Policy and provide suggestions as to how our school could better involve parents. Parents will also have the opportunity to complete this survey at parent/teacher conferences throughout the year. Teachers will send home notes to inform parents of special events at the school. The school will use the student handbook, school website, One Call System and a parent orientation meeting to communicate the School wide Title I Plan and how to get a copy upon request.

List the proposed parent meeting, conferences and activities regularly throughout this year and the dates providing flexible meeting times that you have planned to increase parental involvement and build staff and parent capacity to engage in these types of efforts. 2.

The school will offer registration sessions at various times before school starts that will include giving parents informational items and individual help with the registration process. Other meetings throughout the year will be held at various times during the day or evening to better accommodate parents. The Parent Involvement Committee will meet to review, discuss, and revise as needed the Parent Involvement Policy. The school will also host an Open House and two Parent-Teacher Conferences for parents to visit with their child's teachers individually. At these meetings the school will provide summaries of individual student progress and test scores and provide parents the opportunity to discuss support they can provide at home. These meetings will also provide training sessions for parents on the school's online grade report software. There will be several parent nights throughout the year specific to school subjects such as literacy, math, music, etc. These special nights will not only showcase student work and achievements, but also offer parents training/informational sessions such as current software students use, digital citizenship, encouraging children to read, STEM careers, statewide assessments, standards, analyzing standardized test results, etc. The calendar is below:                                

August 3-5, 2015 - Pre-registration Days August 10, 2015 - Parent Involvement Committee Meeting August 13, 2015 - Annual Title I Meeting, 4:30 P.M. August 13, 2015 - Open House/Initial Parent/Teacher Conferences August 17, 2015 - 1st Day of School August 2015 - Annual Report to the School September 7, 2015 - Labor Day Holiday September 17, 2015 - Progress Reports September 29, 2015 - Parent/Teacher Conferences October 6-13, 2015 - Scholastic Book Fair October 13, 2015 - Literacy Night/EAST Night Out/Technology Night October 14, 2015 - End of 1st Quarter October 16, 2015 - Report Cards October 19, 2015 - Fall Break October 24, 2015 - JR. High Choir All Region Tryouts November 17, 2015 - Progress Reports November 21, 2015 - JR. High Choir All Region Clinic November 25-27, 2015 - Thanksgiving Holiday December 14, 2015 - Christmas Choir Concert, 6:30 P.M. December 18, 2015 - End of 2nd Quarter December 19, 2015-Jan 1, 2016 - Christmas Holidays January 4, 2016 - Report Cards January 18, 2016 - MLK Day February 15, 2016 - Presidents Day March 3-5, 2016 - Choir Central CPA March 8, 2016 - Math Night/Science Night March 10, 2016 - End of 3rd Quarter March 17, 2016 - Parent/Teacher Conferences/Report Cards March 21-25, 2016 - Spring Break April 12-15, 2016 - State Choir Festival April 15 & 18, 2016 - Spring Holiday April 21, 2016 - Progress Reports

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April 28-30, 2016 - Musical May 12, 2016 - Spring Choir Concert May 15, 2016 - Graduation May 2016 - Spring Awards Ceremonies

Week after school is out - Report Cards go out Teachers will also schedule grade level field trips throughout the school year where parents are invited to attend as participants and chaperones. The school will invite parents to become classroom volunteers for special projects and activities and to participate in student organizational activities such as Student Council, Beta Club, and EAST as well as cheerleading, dance, band, choir, chess team, quiz bowl, athletic events.

How will your school provide information to parents about volunteer opportunities (must include state mandated parent training)? 3.

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The Parent Involvement Facilitator will provide volunteer sign-up sheets and volunteer training at Open House to encourage parent participation in their child's education. Sign-up sheets will also be sent home with the students at the beginning of the school year and volunteer training will be scheduled on an individual need bases throughout the year by contacting the Parent Involvement Facilitator Michelle Bonds: [email protected]. The Parent Involvement Facilitator will place a volunteer survey in the informational packets given to parents at Open House. This survey asks for areas that parents are willing to volunteer and any area of expertise they may be willing to share. This survey also provides an opportunity for parents to state circumstances that would prevent them from volunteering in order for us to better provide more opportunities to volunteer. The school will provide parent information brochures ordered from the Center for Effective Parenting Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. These will be passed out at each grade level during Open House and placed in the Parent Center for easy access throughout the year. The Parent Involvement Facilitator will provide a volunteer resource book for teachers listing the interests and availability of volunteers. The school will provide two hours of PD for teachers and administrators in the area of parental involvement in 2014- 2015 and every fourth year thereafter according to state requirements. The school will host special nights for students transitioning from 5th grade to 6th grade and from 8th grade to 9th grade to help provide a smooth transition from one school to the next. These parent nights will raise parent awareness of procedures and related activities.

How will your school work with parents to create a School-Parent-Compact? The Parent Involvement Committee which is comprised of school staff, parents and students will develop the SchoolParent- Compact. The compact will be reviewed each year by the committee for changes if needed. The compact states the responsibilities of all parties involved to promote student achievement and how each responsible party will do this. All responsible parties must sign the compact. 4.

How will your school provide opportunities for parents to be involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of the school wide school improvement plan, and the Annual Title I Meeting to engage them in the decision-making processes regarding the school's Title I, Part A Program? 5.

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The school provides opportunities for parents, alumni, and community members to be involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of the school's Title I, Part A Program. In addition, the Parent Involvement Committee provides parents to take part in the decision making about the allocation of Title I, Part A funds allocated to enhance parental involvement.

How will your school provide resources for parents?  

The school will provide a parent center with access to a computer to use internet resources. The parent center will also hold informational brochures and documents that parents can take home. The parent center will be located in Middle School room 110 and will be open Monday - Friday 8:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M. The school will make the Title I Plan available to parents and post the Parent Involvement Plan on the

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website. The school will hand out informational packets at Open House containing the Title I Handbook, Parent Compact, Volunteer Survey, Refrigerator Curriculum, How Can You Become Involved? flyer, Parent Involvement Plan, and a Faculty Contact sheet. The school will provide educational materials available for check-out at the Parent Center to promote and support responsible parenting. The school will describe the process for resolving parental concerns/grievances in the Bald Knob Secondary Student Handbook. The Bald Knob School district uses a chain of authority for processing complaints, problems or grievances of parents. Additionally, the state's complaint resolution policy for Title I, Part A is included in the school's Title I handbook that each parent receives each year at Open House. The Bald Knob Middle School principal has designated Michelle Bonds as the Parent Facilitator for the 20152016 school year: [email protected]

How will your school engage parents in the evaluation of your parental involvement efforts? The Parent Involvement Committee will meet annually to evaluate the plan and make changes as necessary. The committee will also meet to analyze data from the Parent Survey, Volunteer Survey, attendance numbers, and effectiveness and discuss concerns, activities, and/or opportunities that need to be changed or adjusted to fit the needs of parents in order to support student academic growth. 7.

How will your school use the parent interest surveys to select, plan and implement parental involvement activities that will be offered throughout the year? The school will use the data from the Parent and Volunteer Surveys along with recommendations from the Parent Involvement Committee to select, plan, and implement parental involvement activities. This data will also be used to decide what new resources and/or supports will need to be provided in the future within the budget provided. The school will host a Freshman night for eighth graders going into ninth grade in order to inform parents and students of course selection, the credit system, career planning, and other opportunities unique to high school. 8.

When will your school plan the Annual Title I Meeting that must be conducted separately? The Annual Title I Meeting is held before school starts and not at the same time as any other school meetings. The meeting time will be decided based on parent schedules and to provide enough time for all aspects of the Title I plan to be covered. This year's meeting will be Thursday, August 13, 2016 at 4:30 P.M. in the Middle School Library. 9.