Section10

Section 10: Parental Involvement
The Mid-Del Public School District uses technology to promote parental involvement and increase communication with parents through district websites, Podcasts, e-mail, and through the district’s student accounting system which links directly to a secure website allowing parents access to their child’s records. The promotion and use of this technology will help parents stay informed and involved in their children’s education. With increased parental involvement, Mid-Del plans to see growth in student achievement.

In July 2006, the district purchased a new web page authoring system. In 2009, the district implemented a new School Center home page. Schools/District websites were previously updated via off site contractors. Having the ability to update on site, using this new web authoring system, enables the district to post important information on-line for parents and community members. District web pages link patrons to all Mid-Del Schools and administrative offices. Currently, newsletters, event calendars, school curriculum, personnel, statistics, enrollment information, and specific school activity information can be found with the click of a button. In addition to day-to-day information, the district report card and each of the school’s report cards are posted as is required by No Child Left Behind legislation. The parent involvement policy and the parent right to know policy are located on the district web site under the “Student Achievement” section.

Access to teacher e-mails and classroom lessons are available at all sites through the use of the teacher workstation. For the 2009-2010 school year, plans to increase the information available on the web page will continue. With access at every site, all classroom teachers, counselors, and administrators will be encouraged to maintain web pages to keep parents involved in the day to day activities of their children and to keep parents informed of the support resources available to them. Along with up-to-date classroom web pages, Podcasts will be used to allow parents to view classroom activities. Direct communication between parents and school personnel will be timely through district and site e-mail access, the ALERTNOW system and the Cisco phone system that soon will be available for every site. The District has made available to parents, the ability to pay for school lunches online using the Meal Pay Plus Program. Question and answer surveys and suggestion pages on the web make parental and community involvement in school happenings easy and convenient.

With teacher workstations in all Mid-Del schools, the district’s student accounting system will be more extensively used in the coming school years. All attendance, discipline, and demographic information will be available to both district personnel and to parents via an internet website which allows parents confidential viewing of student progress and assessment results. The Mid-Del School District has adopted an electronic on-line grade book, which feeds directly to the student accounting system and the secure website.

Parents and community members are being informed of the new technology available through numerous media. Information regarding the district’s new technology has been posted in school newsletters, on marquees, on MDTV (the district’s TV information cable channel), and through flyers that have been dispersed at the Central Enrollment Center, the Mid-Del Board of Administration, and at all school sites.

During the 2009-2010 school year, with the increased use of technology for parental communication, the Mid-Del District recognizes the resources necessary to maintain such an extensive system. New hardware has been purchased to handle the increase in use, and current software is in place. A district server has been designated for the on-line grade book instead of the site servers that were used in the past. Support personnel have been assigned the task of maintenance of equipment and software.

Professional development will be instrumental in the success of implementing the district’s new technology. Support personnel, teachers, and administrators will need continual training to keep abreast of the technology available. Trainings have been and continue to be scheduled for district personnel, secretaries, teachers, and administrators regarding the use of technology in the area of student information and on-line web pages. Assistance is available through our technology help desk at all times. The district’s professional development committee will continue to address technological needs as they arise. In addition to the training of the Mid-Del Schools personnel, “Parent Nights” will be scheduled to present and train parents on the systems at individual school sites at the discretion of the site principal. These meetings will also include information regarding technology available to students for classroom use and digital citizenship. The Mid-Del AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) will be provided to both the parent and student to sign. This policy will inform the users of the appropriate behavior expected for usage of the district's hardware and software and the procedures of the equipment that they utilize that is property of the Mid-Del School District.

The future of technology as a tool for parental involvement in the Mid-Del District looks positive. Implementation of new policies and procedures regarding the electronic grade book and web information pages offer another source of communication and information for parents. Through the purchasing and updating of technology products, along with guidelines for district use, communication between the district, the schools, and the parents of the students educated in this district continues to increase. With this increased communication, a partnership can be formed which will be critical in sustaining and promoting student achievement.