Kimball Family Involvement Plan

Title 1 Family Involvement Plan
Kimball Elementary School
Kimball Elementary School embraces the Seattle School District’s commitment to family involvement as a key to academic success. In order to facilitate this, the school community has developed the following plan.
Our Mission is to create a safe, empowering learning environment where children celebrate continued academic growth and achievement. Kimball fosters lifelong learners and problem solvers within a community of cultural diversity and acceptance. Everyone a learner every day!

Communication
We are committed to forming strong partnerships with our families. One way we will do this is through beginning of the year meetings between teachers and families that are modeled on the kindergarten family visits. Rather than inundate parents with all our policies and procedures, we will ask, What are your hopes and dreams for your child? What makes your child happiest? When are you most proud of your child? How does your child learn best? Etc. Then we follow up those meetings with ongoing, authentic conversation around our educational program and individual student progress (monthly, at minimum).

Weekly e-mail sent to families by principal and weekly newsletters sent by each classroom teacher.
Weekly robocalls and texts translated into our major languages.
Informational displays in school hallways (and website) regarding volunteer opportunities, after school programs, special events, PTSA news, and volunteer recognition.
PTSA Community meetings every other month and special presentations (interpreted).

A highly professional staff of bilingual instructional assistants who maintain regular contact with families by phone and face to face interactions
Principal Coffee Chats
A newly formed Kimball Families of Color group and other opportunities for affinity group input and discussion
Room parents who reflect the diversity of our school and who act as communication liaisons during remote learning.
School wide family/school compact translated into our four major languages (Chinese, Vietnamese,

Spanish, Somali). Compacts are discussed with families during conferences.
Most significantly, teachers and administrators are available by phone, email and in person. Communication happens in multiple formats and languages, and what is always most important is that families feel safe and welcome in our school community.

Family Involvement in School Policies and Procedures
We recruit and encourage families from diverse backgrounds to be a part of our teams and committees. Parents serve on the Building Leadership Team and on the Racial Equity Team to facilitate two-way communication between parents and the school. Kimball also has a School Design Advisory Team that is made up of teachers and parents that represent different parts of the school community and is helping to plan for the new school building. Parents serve on our hiring teams for new staff.

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 at Racial Equity Team meetings
Soliciting input at language and affinity group meetings scheduled throughout the year, Principal Coffee Chats, PTA meetings, etc.
We solicit family comment, through scheduled meetings where the involvement plan is on the agenda. (PTA meetings, Building Leadership Team meetings, and others as appropriate)
We discuss and act on the results of family climate surveys.

Communication of Title 1 Program Requirements
Kimball Elementary’s outlining of the Title 1 program requirements and the rights of families will be held early in the fall. This evening meeting is widely publicized by classroom announcements, translated flyers and texts, calls by language IA’s, etc. Meetings were virtual this year and included a K-2 Title 1 Curriculum Night on October 27, a 3-5 Title 1 Curriculum Night on October 29, and four bilingual family nights on November 2 and November 5.

The agenda includes:

Curriculum overview in Literacy and Mathematics and other academic areas
Priority standards for remote learning
Overview of District/State Assessments
Family/Teacher conferences
Family compacts

Kimball Elementary will hold regularly scheduled family teacher conferences.

November academic conferences which include soliciting families? perspectives on their children as well as discussion of academic progress and social-emotional well-being.
Plans this year include student-led spring conferences for fourth and fifth graders
Parents participate in Student Intervention Team (SIT) meetings to help determine interventions for their children and IEP meetings when appropriate.
Parent meetings throughout the year as requested by families, teachers or specialists working with the child

When available, Kimball Elementary will provide written reports of scores to families by:

Distribution of MAP letters to families
Distribution of MSP Science and ELA/Math SBAC scores
WELPA reports sent to parents of children served by bilingual services

All teaching staff at Kimball Elementary School are Highly Qualified.
All new hires must meet Title 1 requirements. Moreover, parents are included on Kimball hiring teams. Kimball Elementary follows Title 1 guidelines in notifying families in the event of a long term substitute if there is a need.

Community Events
At Kimball, we have events throughout the year which include academic events, social events, performances, and educational nights. Many of these, such as NAAPID (National African American Parent Involvement Day) are co-designed with our families. Other examples include our community BBQ and potlucks, Lunar New Year, racial equity education nights, math night, music celebrations and many more. We have interpreters at all these events, and we also hold specific bilingual family nights to provide opportunities for different language groups to partners with us. There is also a principal coffee once a month for families to ask questions and give feedback.

Events include (but are not limited to) Math Night, Kimball Celebrates Learning, potlucks, Spring Fling event, art walk, Martin Luther King, Jr. assembly and march, Lunar New Year, NAAPID, Kindergarten Family Night, etc.
Parents serve as volunteers throughout the school (tutors, library helpers, chaperones, facilitators of before and after school programs, special events coordinators).
Language support for families whose home language is not English. This includes interpretation of conferences, student intervention team meetings, IEP meetings, and general conferences.
Parent borrowing privileges from the library; books and books on tape are available in many languages.
Parent involvement and leadership on the Building Leadership Team (BLT), Racial Equity Team, School Design Advisory Team, PTSA executive board and more.

This plan is available in the front office.
Kimball Elementary School has a strong commitment to parent involvement. With a diverse linguistic, socio-economic, racial, cultural and ethnic community, our school strives to welcome, reach out to and include all families as equal partners.