FARRELL AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT

FARRELL UPPER MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES 7 AND 8

SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT 2024 – 2025

FARRELL UPPER MIDDLE SCHOOL SCHOOL-PARENT COMPACT

The Farrell Upper Middle School, and the parents of the students participating in activities, services, and programs funded by title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), agree that this compact outlines how the parents, the entire school staff, and the students will share the responsibility for improved student academic achievement and the means by which the school and parents will build and develop a partnership that will help children achieve Pennsylvania’s high standards.

This school-parent compact is in effect during the 2024 - 2025 school year.

School Responsibilities

The Farrell Upper Middle School will:

1.	Provide high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables the children to meet Pennsylvania’s student academic achievement standards as follows:
●	The use of the Standards Aligned System (SAS) through the Pennsylvania Department of Education: This is a comprehensive approach to support student achievement across PA through: Clear Standards, Fair Assessments, Curriculum Framework, Instruction, Materials and Resources and Interventions.
●	Data-Driven Decision-Making: Grade level and department level data teams meet on an ongoing basis to analyze a variety of assessment data such as MAP, Keystone’s, PSSA’s, attendance and other measures to inform instructional decision-making.
●	High Leverage Instructional Practices: All teachers will be trained in research-based instructional practices to support student achievement.
●	Administrator Walkthroughs and LearningWalks™: Administrators visit the classrooms on a regular basis to interact with teachers and students. Administrators are active participants in the learning process.
●	School Wide Positive Behavior Plan that will foster a positive collaborative classroom atmosphere.
2.	Hold parent-teacher conferences during which this compact will be discussed as it relates to the individual child’s achievement. Specifically, those conferences will be held as follows:
●	Parent conferences may be scheduled during the teacher’s planning period.
●	Additional conferences may be arranged by contacting your child’s teacher, other support staff at the school, or administration.
3.	Provide parents with frequent reports on their children’s progress. Specifically, the school will provide reports as follows:
●	Interim Reports are sent home mid-way during each nine week grading period. ●	Report Cards are sent home four times a year.
●	IEP students receive Progress Monitoring Reports on a quarterly basis.
4.	Provide parents reasonable access to staff. Specifically, staff will be available for consultation with parents as follows:
●	Parents may contact the school to arrange a meeting with the child’s teacher. Arrangements should be made in advance.
●	Each teacher has a 30 minute planning period during which time they can also hold a conference or contact parents.
●	Communication may occur via phone, in-person, Parent Square, or through email.
5.	Provide parents opportunities to volunteer and participate in their child’s class and to visit classroom activities as follows:
●	Parents will abide by the school district volunteer policy. ●	Parents who volunteer will be required to have clearances.
●	Parents/guardians, grandparents, community members and interested educators are always welcome to visit our schools to attend programs and activities.

●	Parents/guardians are always welcome to make appointments for teacher conferences. Contact your child’s teacher to arrange a time and date.
●	Any parent who wishes to observe in his/her child’s classroom may do so by making arrangements with the administration and the classroom teacher in advance.

Parent/Guardian Responsibilities

We, as parents/guardians, will support our children’s learning in the following ways: ●	Encourage my child to demonstrate respect for self, others, and the environment. ●	Create an atmosphere that supports learning.
●	Encourage my child to read at least 30 minutes a day.
●	Monitor attendance. Make sure my child arrives at school on time every day. ●	Send the child to school well-rested.
●	Monitor assignments and make sure that homework is completed.
●	Sign my child up for tutoring programs to support them in their learning.
●	Monitor the amount of television viewing and the amount of video gaming. ●	Provide opportunities for physical activities.
●	Volunteer in my child’s classroom.
●	Participate, as appropriate, in decisions relating to my children’s education. ●	Promote positive use of my child’s extracurricular time.
●	Stay informed about my child’s education and communicate with the school by promptly reading all notices from the school or the school district either received by my child or by mail and responding, as appropriate.
●	Attend school functions, such as Open House, Title I informational Meetings, Title I Family Nights, and parent conferences.
●	Serve, to the extent possible, on policy advisory groups, such as being the Title I, Part A parent representative on the school’s School Improvement Team, the Title I Policy Advisory Committee, the District–wide Policy Advisory Council, or other school advisory or policy groups.

Student Responsibilities

We, as students, will share the responsibility to improve our academic achievement and achieve Pennsylvania’s high standards. Specifically, we will:
●	Develop a positive attitude about school.
●	Be respectful to self, others, and the environment. ●	Follow the districts school wide policy
●	Always try to do my best, use my time wisely, and ask my teacher when I do not understand. ●	Talk to my family about what I am learning and doing at school.
●	Do my homework every day.
●	Pay attention and do my work in class.
●	Return completed homework on time that reflects quality and accuracy. ●	Be at school on time unless I am sick.
●	Come to school each day with pencils, pens, paper and other necessary tools for learning. ●	Read at least 30 minutes a day outside of school time.
●	Give my parents/guardians all notices and information received by me from my school every day. ●	Participate in appropriate extra-curricular activities.
●	Follow the Code of Student Conduct.
●	Take ownership for my learning and my behavior.
●	Attend tutoring programs to support me in my learning.

The Farrell Upper Middle School will:

1.	Involve parents in the planning, review, and improvement of the school’s parental involvement policy, in an organized, ongoing and timely way.
2.	Involve parents in the joint development of any schoolwide program plan, in an organized, ongoing, and timely way.
3.	Hold an annual meeting to inform parents of the school’s participation in Title I, Part A programs, and to explain the Title I, Part A requirements, and the right of parents to be involved in Title I, Part A programs. The school will convene the meeting at a convenient time to parents, and will offer a flexible number of additional parental involvement meetings, such as in the morning or evening, so that as many parents as possible are able to attend. The school will invite to this meeting all parents of children participating in Title I, Part A programs, and will encourage them to attend.
4.	Provide information to parents of participating students in an understandable and uniform format, including alternative formats upon the request of parents with disabilities, and, to the extent practicable, in a language that parents can understand.
5.	Provide to parents of participating children information in a timely manner about Title I, Part A programs that includes a description and explanation of the school’s curriculum, the forms of academic assessment used to measure children’s progress, and the proficiency levels students are expected to meet. 6.	On the request of parents, provide opportunities for regular meetings for parents to formulate suggestions, and to participate, as appropriate, in decisions about the education of their children. The school will respond to any such suggestions as soon as practicably possible.
7.	Provide to each parent an individual student report about the performance of their child on the State assessment in at least math and reading and writing and Science, as provided.
8.	Provide each parent timely notice when their child has been assigned or has been taught for four (4) or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified within the meaning of the term in section 200.56 of the Title I Final Regulations (67 Fed.Reg.71710, December 2, 2002).

Optional School Responsibilities:
To help build and develop a partnership with parents to help their children achieve the State’s high academic standards, the Farrell Upper Middle School will:
1.	Recommend to the local educational agency (LEA), the names of parents of participating children of Title I, Part A programs who are interested in serving on the State’s Committee of Practitioners and School Support Teams.
2.	Work with the LEA in addressing problems, if any, in implementing parental involvement activities in section 1118 of Title I, Part A.
3.	Work with the LEA to ensure that a copy of the SEA’s written complaint procedures for resolving any issue of violation(s) of a Federal statute or regulation of Title I, Part A programs is provided to parents of students and to appropriate private school officials or representatives.