Family Engagement Plan

2024-2025 Family Engagement Plan

School Introduction: At Mississippi Creative Arts, we provide for students a school community where they can be creative, inspired, achieve academic success, and they can perform, as well as celebrate their accomplishments.
The Family Engagement Plan (FEP) is organized into four impact areas. We will be working together this year to build positive and goal-organized relationships in each area. Families and staff at school developed this plan together.

The Family Engagement Plan (FEP) is organized into four impact areas. We will be working together this year to build positive and goal-oriented relationships in each area. Families and staff at school developed this plan together.

Welcoming Environment
Our school has staff member(s) available for families to discuss this plan and ask questions

• Principal: Dr. Lydia Kabaka
• ·Assistant Principal: Concha Fernandez Del Rey
•  Behavior Intervention Specialist: Deondre Raggs
•  Content Coach: Laurie Weestrand

Our school communicates with families in many ways.

•  Family/Guardian phone calls/emails, or notes are answered within 24 hours
• Interpreters in Spanish, Hmong and Karen are available to families.
• Principal makes sure that information is communicated through ConnectEd. School’s Quarterly Newsletter, SY 24-25 Calendar,
•  Arts Newsletters, student progress report/update, Teacher/Grade Level Newsletter, and additional flyers
•  Family nights typically focus on increasing parent’s awareness of academic programs and celebrating student successes
• ConnectEd/Smore phone calls, emails, and text messages regarding upcoming events are sent out on a regular basis.
•  Greeting tables are set up at the front of the school at various points in the year to share information about special events and to connect with the community and parents/guardians.
• Teachers regularly connect with families through phone calls, text and email.
•  Mississippi Creative Arts staff respond to family requests for information in a timely manner.
• Parent Teacher Home Visits  

The achievement gap, or rather the “opportunity gap,” between students of color and white students in Saint Paul Public Schools is unacceptable. Our school is working to change practices and systems by identifying the barriers that make it harder for students of color to succeed and for their families to support their learning.

For more about our work on racial equity, contact: 

• Principal: Dr. Lydia Kabaka 
• Assistant Principal: Concha Fernandez Del Rey
• Content Coach: Laurie Weestrand

Transitions between schools can be challenging, and we work to help families as their children start and leave our school. For new students and families, we support the transition by:

• Meeting with families as they transition into the school  Providing guided visits by staff.
•  Classroom Teachers provide direct  contact information to each family.
•  Providing an informational table in the office that contains documents, school information.
•   PreK students participate in multiple transition events during the spring prior to their transition to kindergarten.  These include both family/student visits to kindergarten classrooms, and Fall/Spring Family Days.
•    Coordination with Head Start and SPPS PreK programing, 
• Wilder Services, Related services and programs.
•  Showcase Events featuring Arts Integration K-5

For students and families moving to the next school in their pathway, we support the transition by: 
Grade 5 teachers and the school counselor support student’s transition  and orientation visits to pathway middle schools.  Specific activities may include Mississippi students visiting schools, attending performances, student leaders and staff coming to Mississippi Creative Arts School    

Family Partnership
Our school-parent compact establishes the shared responsibility for student success between the school, families, and students. Families and teachers work together to develop the compact. 

Copies of the compact are available: 

• In the main office
• At Open House and Fall Festival -for families/guardians to discuss as it relates to their individual child’s achievement.
• During Fall and Spring conferences 
• On the MCAS website-https://www.spps.org/mcas 
• Monthly MPO (Mississippi Parent Organization) Meetings
• The compact will be updated:  October 2024 by staff and families.

There are many opportunities for families to build connections to the school and to each other.

•   Title I Annual Meeting where we will share information about our school-wide Title 1 program will be held in person three times per year 
• Fall Festival
• Arts Integration Events
• Parent Teacher Conferences
• Achievement Awards Celebrations
• Mississippi Parent Organization (MPO) Meetings
• Parent Teacher Home Visit Project
•  Arts Integration Showcases by Grade Level.
• Art Residencies
•  Monthly Talent Shows
• Volunteering in the school in classrooms, attending field trips, and other special events and performances. 
•  National African American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID) will be on February

We work to make these meetings and events available for every family in the school.

•  Interpreters are secured for parent-teacher conferences and special education due process meetings and special events
• Documents are  translated into Karen, Hmong and
  Spanish via Newsletters, Flyers and Smore
•   Monthly Mississippi Parent Organization Meetings (MPO) with Language Affinity Groups
• Bilingual Educational Assistants will reach out to families by phone to remove barriers to family/guardian participation.
• Communication around the Arts will be available through Open House, Fall Festival, Conferences, and Showcase evenings.
•   Arts Integration Showcases will be announced via newsletters, flyers and digital communication
• Transportation and childcare are provided for some events and activities
  Our school supports families as advocates and provides opportunities for parent leadership
• The belief in families as advocates, and leaders is central to the work at Mississippi Creative Arts School. Several opportunities are available for families to engage with staff to support their child and our school community, and also to engage with and serve as community leaders.
•  There are several ways for families/guardians to handle concerns about things at the school. School administration, and support staff (school counselor and social worker) all work with families and teachers to address concerns.  In addition, families are referred to the district’s Ombudsperson if they are unable to resolve concerns at the school level.
• Mississippi Creative Arts will provide professional development to teachers and support staff in the value and utility of contributions of families, in how to reach out to, communicate with, and work with families as equal partners, implement and coordinate family programs, and build ties between families and the school.
•  Mississippi Creative Arts will involve families by providing information in a format and in languages that are representative of families .

Teaching and Learning
Our school shares information about state standards, assessment and student achievement with families in multiple ways

• Report cards and progress reports will be distributed 
  In November and March during parent-teacher conferences . If families/guardians are unable to attend a conference at school, teachers will hold a phone conference or make accommodations for families. End-of-year report cards are mailed home to families by the district in June. 
• Parent-Teacher conferences are held:
  November 7, 2024 5:00 pm -8:00 pm
  November 8, 2024 8:00 am -4:00 pm
  March 27,2025 5:00 pm -8:00 pm
  March 28, 2025 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
• Support for developing literacy skills within the school day:  Mississippi Creative Arts School provides multiple supports for developing readers in grades Kindergarten through grade 5.  Additional licensed staff and paraprofessional staff work with classroom teachers to develop student’s literacy skills.  Classroom Teachers and EL staff are all participating in professional development in the Science of Reading through CareiAll
• Families Support for developing literacy skills at home:  
  Families who read to and with their children help instill in them a love of reading. Students in grades 1 through 5 are expected to read at home each day; the exact amount of time is dependent on the grade level and the student's learning needs. Students are permitted to check out library books to bring home.
  Students who are learning to read should be given home support in literacy enrichment provided by the classroom teacher in addition to listening to family members read.  Teachers can  provide materials for families to work on at home with their students. As we move through the school year, materials are differentiated to meet the needs of the students.

Our school will engage in personalized learning as a key strategy to accelerate student achievement. Parents can get more information using many tools.

• Parent log-in information can be accessed at spps.org/onestop or by asking our school clerks (Joyce Dates or Mariel Quiroz)
•  Parent Portal is available by contacting the main office
•  Mississippi Creative Arts School  continues to participate in the district’s 1-to-1 iPad initiative.  K-5 students received  iPads in September.  At Mississippi Creative Arts School, iPads are used to prepare students to effectively use technology to gather information, to process and analyze information, and to present what they have learned.  We work to ensure our students have the technology and analytical skills they will need in the future.  iPads are also used to provide customized instruction by utilizing programs for reading and math.  The majority of programs that students use at school for individualized instruction in math and reading can also be accessed online at home, the public library, etc.  
•  Parent Teacher Home Visits (PTHV) seeks to build the partnerships between parents and educators that are essential to providing quality education to all students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, or ability.

Many before- and after-school enrichment and support opportunities are available for students: ·        Extended Day Learning (EDL),  Tutors and Girl Scouts

Community Partnerships
Our school develops community partnerships to provide additional support for students and their families

•  Family Innovations
•  Children’s Crisis Center
• McDonough Recreation Center
•  Project Reach
• Keystone (Hmong Youth & Family Program)
• Wilder Foundation
• Art of Counseling 
• Rice Street Library
• East Side Council
• RBC

Arts Partnerships

•  Art Start
• Cowles Center for Dance & Performing Arts
• Connect Orchestra
• Arts Pathways
• Center of Equity and Culture
• Interact
• Heart of Dance
• Neighborhood Bridges
• Coalition of Women and Girls in Sports
• Eastside Arts Council
•  Minnesota Institute of Art
• Speaking Out Collective
• St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
• MPR Class Notes
• Minnesota Children’s Theater Company

This plan is available as part of our school’s SCIP, or School Comprehensive Improvement Plan at spps.org/scip, is on our school website at https://school.spps.org/about/title-i, and printed copies are available in the office.