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“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.”
– Ralph Marston
Excellence is often misinterpreted as a level of achievement we reach in a particular skill or our ability to perform a certain task, but it is less about our skill than it is about the attitude we bring to every situation.
Excellence is achieved through a growth mindset and a commitment to continuous improvement. Each day we can choose to have a positive attitude that allows us to learn from our mistakes and persevere through the challenges we face.
Reviewing Your GMAP Application
As the school year moves forward, don’t forget to revisit your GMAP applications and make updates as needed. You may have already found the need to adjust the approved Title I, Part A spending plan in the GMAP budget. When changes occur, it is important to ensure that budget entries in your Enterprise ERP (EERP) budget report remain aligned with the approved budget in GMAP.
Title I coordinators are encouraged to work closely with district finance officers to develop budgets that accurately reflect planned activities and to maintain that alignment throughout the grant cycle. A KDE recommended best practice is to align EERP and GMAP quarterly.
When Are GMAP Revisions Required?
Title I, Part A application revisions may be submitted through the GMAP system at any time during the year. A revision is required when:
- Funds are reallocated within the grant budget.
- District spending changes district set-aside amounts.
- District or school spending changes a school's allocation amount.
- Significant changes are made to the activities supported by Title I, Part A funds. Example: A district was originally approved to provide professional learning activities but later decides to use the funds for parent and family engagement activities.
- The approved GMAP budget and EERP budget are no longer aligned.
To ensure compliance with federal requirements and support effective grant management, districts should establish a regular and routine process for reviewing and reconciling their GMAP and EERP budgets throughout the year.
Checking In on Title I Parent and Family Engagement
We know the importance of parent and family engagement in all schools, but there are some special requirements in Title I schools. As the school year gets underway, this is a good time to ensure that everyone is off to a good start with parent and family engagement (PFE) efforts and that strong partnerships with families are being formed.
Some required activities should have already taken place and there should be more engagement opportunities planned for the remainder of the year. Consider checking in with your Title I schools to review activities that have already been held and those that are planned for future dates.
- Verify the required annual Title I meeting has been held at each Title I school and that supporting documentation of the meetings – such as meeting invitations, agendas or detailed minutes – have been saved. Also save any materials, such as handouts or slides, that were shared with attendees to document the program information that was shared.
- Ensure that each Title I school has distributed its written PFE policy and school-family compact to all participating parents and family members. The policy should be made available to the community, which can be done by posting to the school website to ensure they can be accessed by parents and the community at any time.
- Confirm that all applicable parent notifications (testing transparency, right to request teacher qualifications, etc.) have been provided to parents.
- Ensure schools have documented the distribution of school-family compacts (e.g., copies of signed compacts, signatures of parents who have received the compact).
- Confirm that discussion of the school-family compact as it relates to individual student achievement is planned during a parent teacher conference at the elementary school level. Remind schools these discussions should be adequately documented by sign-in sheets, conference invitations or talking point checklists. Be sure to share this newsletter with Title I principals and call their attention to the Principal’s Perspective article.
- Review PFE activities that have been held or are planned to be held to ensure they meet the intent and purpose of the Title I PFE program. As a reminder, entertainment/social activities should not be paid for with Title I funds. Consider using the Title I PFE Event Summary Template to help document that all events meet the intent and purpose of the program.
- Monitor the obligation of funds reserved for PFE, ensuring all purchases are allowable and align with program requirements. The Title I, Part A PFE Program and Allowable Uses of Funds One Pager is a great resource to share with school principals and school-based decision making council members to provide an overview of allowable PFE spending.
Principal’s Perspective: Discussing the Compact at Parent-Teacher Conferences
ESSA 1116(d)(2)(A) requires elementary schools to hold at least one parent-teacher conference annually, which must include a discussion of the parent and family engagement compact in relation to the individual child’s achievement. The compact is a powerful collaboration tool. Parents, students and teachers can all benefit from periodically revisiting the commitments made in the compact at the start of the school year.
Discussing school-family compacts at parent-teacher conferences is only a requirement at the elementary level. However, ESSA still requires that schools demonstrate various opportunities for communication between school staff and parents through frequent reports to parents on their children’s progress. The school-family contact can be a valuable tool that could be beneficial at all school levels.
It is important to distinguish this requirement from the requirement to provide parents with the compact. Parents should have already received a copy of the compact at the beginning of the school year.
Compact discussions open the door for a conversation with the family to ensure all parties are meeting the agreed upon responsibilities outlined in the compact to ensure the student’s academic success. They allow us to go back and review what the compact says and reconsider what everyone has agreed they will do. This can be eye-opening to all parties and it allows us to consider if everyone has actually been doing what they said they would do.
Teachers can get input from families about the daily routine at school. Student strengths and areas of concern can be identified, and parents can make it known if additional support is needed at home. For example, consider a student who is struggling in math and regularly does not complete and submit their math homework. During the conference, the discussion could include a review of each party’s responsibility related to homework. Is the teacher clearly communicating the assignment by writing it on the board, clearly announcing it to the class, etc.? Is the student writing down the assignment in their agenda or putting the handouts in their homework folder? Is the parent asking about assignments, checking the homework folder each night, etc.?
Each person taking ownership in their role increases the student’s chance for success. This emphasizes that student success requires collaboration and may lead to suggestions on how to improve the compact moving forward.
To ensure that teachers are prepared in advance to effectively use the compact at conferences, provide some brief training and clear expectations about how and why to use the compact during parent-teacher conferences. Use the “School-Family Compact Discussion Documentation” in the Parent and Family Engagement folder of the Title I, Part A Sample Documents folder on the Title I, Part A Documents and Resources webpage. This resource provides tips on conference invitations, guidance for teachers, creating conference agendas or talking points, and sign-in sheets to document compliance on compact discussions.
Open Title I, Part A Projects and Associated Deadlines
Please review the table below and make note of the approaching deadlines regarding the obligation and expenditure of funds from all open Title I, Part A projects. Please note, the dates for FY2025 have been updated to reflect a waiver KDE received to extend the period of availability of funds.
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Fiscal Year (FY)
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Period of Award
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85% Obligation
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All Funds Spent or Encumbered
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Final Federal Cash Request
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FY2025
(Project 310L)
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July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2027
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Sept. 30, 2025
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June 30, 2027
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Aug. 31, 2027
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FY2026 (Project 310M)
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July 1, 2025 - Sept. 30, 2027
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Sept. 30, 2026
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Sept. 30, 2027
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Nov. 12, 2027
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FY2027 (Project 310N)
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July 1, 2026 - Sept. 30, 2028
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Sept. 30, 2027
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Sept. 30, 2028
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TBD
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