Aug. 30, 2018 -- Canterbury Elementary School and Heights Middle School have been awarded the two-year National PTA School of Excellence distinction for their commitment to inclusivity of families and enriching the educational experience for all students.
The program helps PTAs become partners in identifying and implementing school improvement initiatives based on PTA's National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. To qualify, each school had to enroll by a deadline, conduct a survey, load data, create an action team and an action plan based on that data - all of which would support the school improvement process. They then had to submit the plan and finally deploy a summative survey and narrative that showed improvement.
Canterbury and HMS PTAs are two of only 278 PTAs and schools nationwide recognized as 2018-2020 Schools of Excellence.
To celebrate their achievements, both schools will soon receive a banner from the National PTA.
"All of our schools should be commended for their efforts to enroll in the program and make the commitment to increase building-wide support of school improvement. PTA leaders were the ambassadors of the program which increases the building-level support; they led the way to help strengthen family-school partnerships," said Lisa Hunt, the District's Family Engagement Specialist.