All Bay Village K-12 public schools are National PTA Schools of Excellence

Bay High students with (front row) PTSA President Andrea Schwartz, PTSA members Melissa Mason, Eileen Baeppler, Principal Jason Martin and PTA Council President Cheryll McCarty; (back row) Superintendent Clint Keener, PTSA members Julie Meadows, Kathleen Craig, Gayatry Jacob-Mosier and Suzanne Hippler. Photo by Karen Derby

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The PTAs at all four Bay Village City Schools have been designated National PTA Schools of Excellence. This is the second time all four schools have earned the prestigious recognition.

PTA Council President, Cheryll McCarty, initiated this recent set of applications in a way that coordinated all the district’s PTA units, putting them on a common, two-year renewal schedule for the designation which requires a rigorous examination of family-school relationships against national standards. Standards include welcoming families, communicating effectively, supporting student success, speaking for every child, sharing power and collaborating with the community.

“After assessing parent opinion with surveys, PTA and building leadership selected a goal from several offered by the National PTA. This year, all our PTAs focused on the goal of health and safety of students,” said McCarty. “They followed up with an action plan that would incorporate various National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. As part of the plan, each school held an event that provided a focus for strengthening family-school partnerships.”

Normandy Elementary chose to focus on healthy lifestyles at home and at school. Normandy’s “PiYo [pilates-yoga] Live Family Fitness Fun” evening brought many families into the school, communicated the importance of healthy activity to learning, and demonstrated the partnership that PTA provided with the school.

Westerly Elementary’s focus was a cyber-awareness and anti-bullying program. Bay Village Police Detective Kevin Krolkosky presented parents with strategies and tools that can empower them to face the challenges presented by youngsters having access to the internet. School staff, along with Bay Village police, worked with students throughout the year addressing internet safety and cyber-bullying. The effort to help students become safe, responsible and respectful digital citizens brought all the national standards into play.

At Bay Middle School, community health providers, first responders and fitness and nutrition professionals played a significant role at the Health Fair. They provided information, demonstrations and interactive activities to teach students about healthy choices. PTA provided the many needed volunteers, as well as a table of healthy snacks. The collaboration between the community, the school and the PTSA addressed all of the national standards for strong partnerships.

Bay High School used the community partnership approach to promote healthy lifestyles at home and at school. The Bay High PTSA co-sponsored the annual May in Bay 5K Run/Walk and 1 Mile Fun Run. Strong communication about the event brought out more participants from the schools and community than ever before, bringing together all ages for a healthy activity. This helped confirm Bay High PTSA as a force for engagement between families and school in a very positive way.

All PTAs completed a second survey at the end of the year to gauge changes in opinion of respondents from the first survey. Improvements in ratings documented how the PTA work made an impact, and less positive results identified areas where the PTAs will focus on continued improvement.

Superintendent Clint Keener noted there is substantial research indicating that strong school-family relationships make all the difference in student achievement at school. “We are blessed to have involved families who care deeply about their children’s education in the Bay Village Schools,” he said. “Their involvement is a key factor in our success.”