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DPI VISTA: Current Sites and ProjectsCurrent Sites and ProjectsLinks go to the Project Description
Current Sites and ProjectsEach year we develop a Promising Partnership Practices document with highlights from the entire year. See below to read highlights from the past three years of the DPI VISTA Project!
Name: Juanita Peck Site: Altoona School District Site Location: Altoona End of Service Date: 11.18.11 Email: jpeck@altoona.k12.wi.us Work Number: 715-839-6031 ext 239 Supervisor: Greg Fahrman Brief Description of the Site Altoona is located in west central Wisconsin in the heart of the Chippewa Valley. Contiguous to Eau Claire, Altoona is a community of 6,700 residents and home to about 200 businesses. The Altoona school district serves a student population of nearly 1,500 students. The district's three schools, Pedersen Elementary (K-4), Altoona Middle School (5-8), and Altoona High School (9-12) are conveniently located on one site. Current Projects Our VISTA will help us find effective ways to communicate with families and create a mechanism for two-way communication from school to home and home to school. In addition, the VISTA will help us “advertise” how our school functions to the greater community and invite families and community members to become involved in school activities. Ultimately, our hope is that improvement in school-home-community communication will result in an increased feeling of trust in our community. Assisting the Altoona School District and the residents of the City of Altoona to begin to trust each other again and begin the journey to becoming a “Community of Learners” together would be a key component of the work our VISTA will do.
Name: Katelyn Zilles and Amanda Scherer Cunningham, Hackett and Gaston Elementary Schools Hackett and Gaston are two kindergarten-third grade schools that feed into Cunningham Elementary, a fourth and fifth grade school. Our goal will be to work together to ensure all three schools have sustainable school, family and community partnerships. The project started last year with Cunningham, which is a fourth and fifth grade school. The previous VISTA worked to construct what is called the Da Vinci Room, which is a place for kids to think, act, and play creatively. This space is also going to also be open to the Hackett and Gaston families as a way to help all three schools have a more united climate. Current Projects Lunch Buddy program at Gaston Family Resource Center at Gaston Kindergarten workshops Initial Surveys of School Climate to be sent to teachers and parents
Name: Heather Keyes The Indian Community School (ICS) of Milwaukee is a school which serves urban Native American youth and their families within the Milwaukee Community. Our mission exists to foster quality academic education, cultural and physical well being with a focus on Indian core values like bravery, love, truth, wisdom, humility, loyalty, and respect. ICS is committed to developing lifelong community leaders knowledgeable in American Indian culture, academics, and who have a sense of identity. Current Projects Over the course of my 2nd year with the DPI VISTA project I will be working with the Family Resource Center in relationship building and community engagement with the school. This year we are piloting two new programs: a Room Parent Program and Welcome Canoe. With the Room Parent Program we hope to help our parents become leaders in their children's education. Welcome Canoe is our version of welcoming new families to our school community. We have been very busy connecting with new families during home visits. Learning about American Indian culture and language will remain an ongoing focus during my time at ICS.
Name: Liz Klapheke Parker High School is part of the Janesville School District. Janesville is located in South-East Wisconsin in Rock County. The school services over 1,500 students and is one of two public high schools in the district. As the number of people served by the Janesville School District living in poverty grows, Parker High School strives to best serve all of its students, but especially these. Current Projects As poverty levels in Janesville rise, Parker High School has to look at new ways to serve its growing population of students living below the poverty line. One program I am developing, the weekend food backpack program, aims to do just that. I am developing this program as a way for low income students to have food to bring home on the weekends. Another aspect of student life on which Parker would like to focus is the importance of community involvement. In order to help community members become more involved, I am developing a Lunch and Learn mentoring program. Through this program, members of the community will come to the school once a week to work with students during their lunch time. Name: Sarah Abbey Site: Edison Middle School Site Location: Janesville End of Service Date: 8.18.12 Email: sabbey@janesville.k12.wi.us Work Number:608-743-5869 Supervisor: Stacey Nemetz Brief Description of the Site With about 700 students, Edison Middle School is located in the School District of Janesville and feeds into both Parker and Craig High School. Edison’s demographics are changing rapidly with more students are eligible for free and reduced lunch and an increasingly diverse population. One goal of Edison Middle School this year is to close the achievement gap between students who are considered economically disadvantaged and those who are not. Current Projects This year we hope to establish an Action Team of parents, community members, staff, and possibly students at Edison Middle School. The Action Team will work to create a Family Resource Center at Edison that will offer more opportunities for parents to be engaged in their students’ learning as well as community collaboration. It is our hope that this involvement will lead to greater student success. Name: Maureen Kelly Site: Craig High School Site Location: Janesville End of Service Date: 8.18.12 Email: makelly@janesville.k12.wi.us Work Number: 608-743-5200 Supervisor: Teresa Hermanson Brief Description of the Site Janesville, a city of 60,000 residents located in southern Wisconsin, is part of the greater Rock County. In more recent years, the city of Janesville has been faced with a changing economy and an increasing poverty rate affecting families, the community, and the schools. Craig High school is one of two public high schools in the area with a student population of 1,600. This past year, Craig has seen improvements in reading, math, and ACT scores and makes it a priority to provide students with a wide range of extracurricular activities. The VISTA at Craig High School will work with VISTAs in the other Janesville locations, Parker High School and Edison Middle School. Current Projects In the 2011/2012 school year, our VISTA will focus on supporting the increasing number of students at Craig High School who are living in poverty by working for greater community and parent involvement. Specifically, we will focus on ways to better the learning environment at home, and provide more available resources for parents and students. In addition, we hope to increase parent and community volunteers involved in working towards our goal: providing support for students living in poverty and to reach out to minority students. One way we hope to achieve this goal is by implementing a Lunch and Learn program where students will be matched with a caring mentor to provide support and assist in the students’ academic progress throughout the year. Name: Katherine Foster, VISTA Leader
The DPI is the seat of the VISTA Project. The Community Learning and Partnership Team which supports the VISTA Project incorporates the partnership idea into nutrition, early childhood education, service-learning, AmeriCorps, and community education as well as VISTA. Current Projects We currently have 20 members serving across the state of Wisconsin. Having completed Pre-Service and DPI Orientations in August, new and continuing members are hard at work building partnerships in their schools and communities. To help them achieve their goals we are working to increase and improve communication between the DPI and all of our sites. We have done this through regular teleconferences and online WisLine web meetings. We are also working on ensuring that each site receives the most up to date partnership research findings and training materials from the National Network of Partnership Schools. This involves site visits with the VISTAs, on-site trainings, and regular communication between the VISTAs and the Project Coordinator. We're all excited about the VISTAs' projects and are looking forward to seeing how their service unfolds!
Name: Kristin Armstrong The mission of Emerson Elementary School is to promote academic success and lifelong learning by meeting children's needs and nurturing their hopes in a stimulating learning environment. This is achieved by focusing on the long term goals of:
-promoting student and staff safety; Our VISTA will help to:
-Facilitate PTO, as well as additional staff, reading and year long discussion of Beyond the Bake Sale and related topics. Name: Melissa Stephenson Site: Leopold Elementary School Site Location: Madison End of service: 08.18.12 Work Number:608-204-4334 Email:mstephenson@madison.k12.wi.us Supervisor: Sandra Rivera Brief Description of the Site Leopold Elementary School, on Madison’s southwest side, serves about 700 students in grades K-5. Leopold embraces a diverse student body of about 30% Latino students, 30% African-American students, and 30% White, Native American, and Asian students. Many of Leopold’s students come from low-income backgrounds, with over 70% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Recently, Leopold has established a Dual Language Immersion program to integrate student learning, promote cross-cultural understanding, and close student achievement gaps. Current Projects The VISTA position will focus on increasing parent involvement among African-American, Latino, and low-income parents. One of the main projects for the year will be to plan, fund, and implement an Open Schoolhouse program, allowing the school building to be used in the evenings and weekends for community and family learning and wellness activities. Through the foundation of the Open Schoolhouse, programming will be offered to provide parents with training and resources to be effective supporters of their children’s education.
PARENTS PLUS, MILWAUKEE Brief Description of Parents PlusParents Plus is a Wisconsin parent information and resource center. The mission of the organization is to support the development of positive parenting skills and to increase parental involvement in Wisconsin schools for the purpose of improving student achievement. This mission is carried out through several services such as Action Team training and assistance, Parents as Teachers, Poverty Training and more. Current Projects As VISTAs, our roles are to work with schools in the Milwaukee area to establish an Action Team, help connect resource centers with the school in their neighborhood and set up parent groups within schools in hopes of increasing the parent participation. We do this by visiting the schools and resource centers and figuring out their needs and how we can meet them. Having the 8th highest poverty rate of large cities in America, about one in four of Milwaukee residents live in poverty. With numbers as staggering as those, being a VISTA in Milwaukee means looking at how the education system can be changed in order to improve the quality of life for children and their families.
Name: Bethany Bridges
Name: Margot Geisthardt
Name: Michael Hickey
Name: Maya Mazul
Name: Kiralyn Bradford
Name: Laura Weaver
Name: Samantha Aguirre Site: Racine Unified School District Site Location: Racine End of Service Date: 8.18.12 Email: samantha.aguirre@rusd.org Work Number:262-664-8400, ext 3035 Supervisor: Kathy Dunkerson Brief Description of the Site The Racine Unified School District has a student population of approximately 21,000 students with a wealth of diversity. The students come from urban, rural, and suburban areas within a 100-square mile area. The district has 21 elementary schools, 7 middle schools and three large high schools, one magnet high school, and one charter high school. The district has approximately 1,400 teachers and 110 administrators. Gilmore M.S., located on Racine's north side, stands strong with its mission: "to guide our students through these years of intense discovery, help them focus on their futures in our dynamic world, and help them recognize their individual potential so they become responsible, contributing members of our society." Current Projects We know that children do better when their parents are involved in their education. The VISTA will help bridge the achievement gap for children by providing parent education to and developing a Parent College. The Parent College will be a collaboration with Racine Unified School District, Lighted School House, and other Community Partners in following with the partnership models from the National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University.
Name:Tim Rogers The Wausau School District is working hard to increase student achievement and close the achievement gaps of our economically disadvantaged students. Our school improvement plans have a clear, unified focus incorporating the research-based framework of the 6 types of involvement: parenting, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with community. Our district has many resources, effective community partnerships, strong after-school programs and a firm commitment to family and community involvement. Families as the first source of learning are one of three key areas of focus for the Wausau School Foundation. We previously had VISTA's serving at individual sites, which led to the creation of our Parent Partnership Coordinators, currently at five sites, funded by Title I. Current ProjectsAt the Wausau School District, we are working to increase the variety and number of events that are offered to parents. There will be two conference-style events, which feature parent education workshops, learning activities for children, and family activities. Another goal this year is to further develop our action team so we are able to sustain the model. Summer VISTA Associate Program Term of Service: 6.16 through 8.14
For more information, contact Kristine Nadolski, Program Manager Or dial 800-441-4563, and request the above extension Last updated on 2/7/2012 3:25:50 PM |
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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers
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