This past Tuesday morning, the annual Powerful Partnerships Breakfast hosted 150 attendants. District 219 students were able to share how they have benefited from the Powerful Partnership programs, who often work with D219 in one specific area, and share a broader perspective of what other branches are achieving.

“Building Powerful Partnerships” was an initiative started five years ago by the Board of Education based on the idea that through active relations, or partnerships, between school faculty and parents or school faculty and communities/agencies students tend to get more out of their education than they would otherwise. This idea is supported by the research of Henderson and Mapp (Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence; Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement).

Partnerships between faculty and parents have proven to help students get better grades and test scores, filter into higher level programs, and move on to higher education as well as have better social skills and attend school more regularly. Partnerships between faculty and community have similarly proven to help students through better school leadership and staffing, through resources to support families and after-school programs, and through higher quality facilities, resources, and education programs.

“Since our Board of Education adopted its Powerful Partnerships priority five years ago, we’ve seen the number of partnerships grow sizably. More importantly, so has the quality and caliber of these working relationships. Today we are offering our students significant applied learning opportunities and exposure to real-life career choices,” Community Relations Director Jim Szczepaniak said.

As for exposure to career choices, Job Shadow Day and Ask the Expert Day are two examples of programs that have been successfully established. At this past Powerful Partnerships Breakfast, other partnership programs were emphasized such as the STEM classes where scientists and researchers teach students, Niles North’s Empty Walls Silent Art Auction, which was successful through alumni help, and Niles North’s Writers’ Week where professional authors came by to present to students.

This past breakfast showcasing D219’s achievements as well as their Powerful Partnership achievements in and of themselves have appeared to both be a success from the many current partners and the many opportunities now available to students.