by William Crum
The national PTA has recognized Frances Willard elementary school in Kansas City, Kan., as a 2014-2016 national PTA school of excellence.
Frances Willard is only one of six schools in Kansas and one of the 170 from across the country to receive this high recognition. The Kansas State Board of Education recognized the schools on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the regular meeting. A PTA celebration was held on Thursday night.
Research shows that when families and schools work together, student achievement increases, schools improve and communities grow stronger, according to school officials.
Frances Willard has long involved students in the PTA programs, which are called a PTSA there. The school’s PTSA president, Rachel Henderson, is really involved. She grew up here in Wyandotte County. She is a graduate of Piper High School in Kansas City, Kan.
What they did was distribute books to the children that were donated to the school. More than 450 people attended this gala event and an estimated 350 books were given out to the children.
A lot of students could not wait to read the books when they got home.
“We are really proud of our students and the staff,” she said. “The secret to this is simple, the staff including the teachers constantly inform us on what is going on. They communicate with us through newsletters, informal meetings and phone messages on what is going on in the district, of current and future plans.”
Superintendent Cynthia Lane said “This is what we’re about, inspiring excellence in every student we have the district. I’m very proud of all of our students within district.
“This is why we have the PTA programs in all of our schools; in this case they call it PTSA, with her, students get involved. We are really proud of Frances Willard elementary and all of our schools in the district on all levels. This is what we are truly about, educating our students so they can have a better future.”
The PTSA also launched a Kindle initiative. They also developed a five-year plan so that each grade would have a set in the next five years and give away Kindles to families all year long at numerous events.
Recently, the Kansas City, Kan., school district has had numerous awards on all levels, both state and national for achieving high excellence.
At the event, the students got books, pizza and snow cones. Plus as an added attraction there was a person there who made balloon headsets for the students, which was sponsored in part by the PTSA and the staff at Frances Willard elementary school.
