D65 Should Partner With Parents

Last Monday night, after getting my daughter to bed and doing the dinner dishes, I tuned in to the D65 School Board meeting.  It was around 9:30 p.m. and the public comment was just getting underway.  As I listened to the members of Citizens for Appropriate Special Education describing their struggles in getting services for their children with special needs, and heard some of the disparaging remarks being made toward them, the scene seemed strangely familiar.  Just a few months ago, I was standing at the same podium with other parents concerned about the school calendar and the impact a proposed increase in early dismissal days would have on the care and education of our children. 

While we were addressing very different issues, I couldn’t help but notice a common theme in our message:  D65 parents want a school system that fully values and respects us as partners in the education of our children and that is more responsive to the needs of our families.

But how can we possibly achieve such a vision in an environment that feels increasingly hostile and where parents are often: excluded from decision making on matters that affect them and their children and can’t even count on a courteous return phone call in response to their inquiries; chastised for requesting information that should be routinely collected and publicly available; forced to wade through 70-page packets on 48 hours notice and sit at meetings until 11:00 or 12:00 at night in order to stay informed and have a voice in their child’s education (goodness knows, if we had the time to do this, we should probably run for School Board); and, interrogated about our motives whenever we pose a question or disagree with the administration as if we would have anything but the best interests of our children in mind.

So, what will it take to create a more “parent-friendly" District 65?   Perhaps naively, I had hoped that the strategic planning process now underway could be a vehicle for bringing about such change. I attended the first organizing session back in February and was pleased that, in addition to teachers, administrators and Board members, there would be strong parent representation on the Strategic Planning Committee.  I was also excited to hear the facilitator (a former Superintendent in Glenview) state that parents are among the most important stakeholders in our schools and recommend that the first meeting of the Committee be devoted to soliciting our input.

But, that never happened.  Instead the Committee took the road more traveled, opting to complete the bulk of its work before giving the public a formal opportunity to weigh in (which is supposed to happen at a forum this fall).   I expressed my concerns about this to some committee members and was told that anyone who wants to can address the group during the first 30 minutes of its Saturday meetings.  Had I not asked, I would have never known as this information has never been formally communicated to the community at-large and is not mentioned at all in the “Strategic Planning” section of the District website. 

In wading through the notes of the first two meetings, however, there was a statement that piqued my interest.  It read:  “Parents are the primary educators of their children and the School District should support and supplement them in their efforts.”  Yes, I thought, that’s exactly what we need.  But, then I read on to find that none of the goals identified by the Committee spoke to this issue and so I decided to.

On behalf of myself and the members of ParentsWork, I went to the May 10th Committee meeting and recommended that the following goal be included in the strategic plan: “Create a culture of support for parents – in the schools and across the District - that strengthens their ability to be actively engaged in their children’s lives and education.”  I also suggested some activities that could be undertaken during the first year of the five-year plan toward this objective including:

(1) Partnering with a local university to conduct a survey of D65 parents to learn more about how their employment situation/work schedule impacts their ability to be involved in their child’s education and to solicit their ideas on ways the schools can more fully support them in these endeavors;

(2) Developing a plan for leveraging existing D65 technology (cell phones, phone alert system, school computer labs, District web site etc.) to promote better communication with parents and to facilitate their involvement in their child’s education and school; and,

(3) Conducting a scan of all District policies, practices and procedures to assess whether they facilitate parental involvement and to identify areas for improvement.

If the Committee adopts these recommendations, it would be an important step in demonstrating that D65 genuinely sees parents as partners in our children’s education.  I’d like to believe that the current Board and administration want to have a positive, productive working relationship with parents and do not mean to treat us as adversaries.  However, if they do not make some gestures soon to improve the current climate, perhaps it’s time for D65 parents to come together (by forming a coalition or group like the LA Parents Union) to demand the change we all deserve.