Leschi Elementary

2023-2024

Leschi Elementary School embraces the Seattle School District’s commitment to family involvement as a key to academic success. The following plan has been developed by the school community.

Leschi Elementary recognizes that some students may need the extra assistance available through the Title I program to reach the state’s high academic standards.  Leschi Elementary intends to include parents and guardians in all aspects of the school’s Title I program.  The goal is a school-home partnership that will help all students to succeed.

Leschi Elementary School will meet statutory requirements by:

• School Wide Family/School compact translated into our major languages (Somali, English, Spanish).  Teachers discuss Compacts during family conferences in November. Paper copies of the Compacts are sent home in back packs after November family conferences. We maintain family communication through:

1. Weekly Family Bulletin in Amharic, Chinese, Oromo, Russian Spanish, Somali, and English from administration. (Translation app provided by Seattle Public Schools)
2. PTA sponsored email newsletters
3. Informational displays in school hallways regarding volunteer opportunities, after school programs, special events, PTA news, and volunteer recognition.
4. Quarterly PTA meetings and special presentations (interpreted)
5. A highly professional staff of bilingual instructional assistants who maintain regular contact with families by phone and face to face interactions
6. Funding for family-initiated activities, before and after school programs, cultural and educational evenings for families, etc. such as Fall Festival, Taste of Leschi, Black History Night, Juneteenth, etc.
7. Building family capacity for involvement through informal gatherings by cultural affinity group, trainings, joint parent-family classes via Teams
   1. YSA supporting families in reviewing academic progress and identifying learning support activities at home.
8. Additional family services offered through the City of Seattle Families and Education Levy

Leschi will involve families in the development and revision of the school’s family involvement plan by:

• Principal feedback sessions held every other month – alternating between in person and on zoom
• Soliciting family comment, through scheduled meetings where the involvement plan is on the agenda. (PTA meetings, Building Leadership Team meetings, and others as appropriate)
• Solicit family comment via email response and GoogleDocs from PTA Board
• Implementing feedback from a brief climate survey administered during the 2022-2023 school year.

Leschi will involve families in the process of school review and improvement by

• Membership on the Building Leadership Team where major issues of educational policy and practice are decided around C-SIP, budget, and professional development
• Soliciting input meetings scheduled throughout the year, monthly Teams Community meetings with the Principal, PTA meetings
• Every other Monthly Principal Community meetings with Principal and PTA (2nd Wednesday of each month)

Lesch’s meeting outlining the Title 1 program requirements and the rights of families will be held in the fall. This Teams evening meeting is widely publicized by classroom announcements, translated flyers, calls language IA’s, PTA e-mail.

The agenda includes:

• Curriculum overview in Literacy and Mathematics
• District/State Academic standards
• Overview of District/State Assessments
• Expectations for student performance on assessments
• Family/Teacher conferences
• Family compacts

Leschi will hold regularly scheduled family – teacher conferences.

• November academic conferences which include soliciting families’ perspectives on their children.
• Parent meetings throughout the year as requested by families, teachers or specialists working with the child.

Leschi will provide written reports of scores to families by:

• Trimester progress report
• Distribution of MAP letters to families
• Distribution of MSP Science and ELA/Math SBA scores
• WIDA reports sent to parents of children served by bilingual services

All teaching staff at Leschi School are Highly Qualified.

• All new hires must meet Title 1 requirements.  Leschi Elementary School follows Title 1 guidelines in notifying families in the event of a long-term substitute if one is needed.

Activities by Leschi to help parents understand academic requirements include:

• Trainings to help families utilize family/teacher conference
• Workshops on the SBA
• Meetings on how to read and interpret the report card
• Translated reports on student progress in addition to the report card
• Leschi’s Title 1 team provides on-going training and support to all staff in communicating with parents and engaging them as equal partners in their child’s education.

In addition to all the activities listed above Leschi has developed the following opportunities for parent involvement in the school. (When not in Pandemic status)

• Volunteer Coordinator whose explicit job description in to encourage parent volunteer activities and to promote communication between school and parents.
• Parents serve as volunteers throughout the school (tutors, library helpers, chaperones, facilitators of before and after school programs, special events coordinators).
• School wide celebrations representing diverse cultural traditions, such as Black History night, A Taste of Leschi, all grade levels cultural diversity celebration.
• Language support for families whose home language is not English.  This includes interpretation of conferences, student intervention team meetings, IEP meetings, and general conferences.
• Full time Family Support Worker who helps families with material needs and tracks families whose children are at risk of truancy or poor academic performance
• Parent involvement and leadership on the Building Leadership Team (BLT), and PTA executive board.  Parents are also represented on the, playground supervision and before and after school programs.
• Provide materials and training to help parents/guardians work with their children to improve their children’s achievement such as literacy training and using technology, as appropriate, to foster parental involvement.

This plan is available in the front office and the website.  Copies are available through the PTA, admin secretary, principal, and assistant principal.

Leschi Elementary School has a strong commitment to parent involvement.  With a diverse linguistic, socio-economic, racial, cultural, and ethnic community, the school strives to welcome, reach out to and include all families as equal partners.