On Our Way

Improvement often consumes resources. That's certainly true at Molly Stark Elementary School. Perhaps the most critical resource is time. Our path toward lifting performance results will likely require time; and sustained commitment, sacrifice, persistence, and parent engagement. Another ingredient in the process involves recognizing small victories as we move forward.

Here are two encouraging signs regarding parent involvement.

Our Open House attracted over 200 parents who signed attendance sheets at the event. The Open House was changed to promote opportunities for teachers to address parents in an informative presentation explaining classroom expectations and grade level requirements. The evening began with a welcome form the principal and featured an exciting and entertaining video of a song and dance routine performed by a number of staff members. There were ten door prizes of gift cards, each worth $10.00 and redeemable at the school's book fair. In addition, one lucky winner received a $25.00 gift card at Walmart when their name was drawn at random from among those in attendance.

There was another sign of progress. The school's Parent-Teacher Group recorded their highest attendance in memory when the gathering was forced to relocate to the Library to accommodate those present. that's a great problem to experience. We're hopeful that our next monthly meeting (October 13th at 5:30 pm in the Library) will reveal an even bigger turn-out. In an effort to attract fathers to become involved in the Parent-Teacher Group, we are providing a gift card to raffle off if at least five fathers attend the meeting.

We are confident that this will be a successful school year at Molly Stark Elementary School. We'll reach our goal of increasing proficiency results on the state's accountability measures by at least 2.5%. Hopefully, there will be many positive benchmarks along our path that we can share.