Paving the road to Charleston with good intentions

I remember being a kid in school, seeing other students' parents there for any and every school activity there was. They were present so often that when they were absent, it was cause for alarm. Were they all right? Had they taken ill? Were they visiting family out-of-town?

My own parents didn't do that, and I knew well why. Both worked, full-time, to support a family with several children. We had no independent wealth, and no white-collar jobs in the household, so my folks were not familiar faces at my schools. Unlike the cases of my friends' parents, it was cause for concern when my mom and dad did come to school -- usually to pick up an ill child.

Certainly I wished that my folks were like my friends' folks in one way, that they had the sort of freedom that let them pop up for a pep rally, a choral recital, a school play, a ballgame, and to be woven into the fabric of a small school community. Reality was, they didn't have that freedom.

This is what came to mind when I read about the recommendation of a well-intending parent group in Charleston, who asked the local school board "to require parents or guardians to give eight hours of their time annually to their children's schools. Parents would receive a rating of 'highly engaged' or 'emerging' at the end of the year based on whether they fulfilled that commitment."

At least one board member was eager to hear it.

The school board didn't make a decision, but board members likely will consider it again at a future meeting. Their reactions were mixed. Some, such as member Cindy Bohn Coats, wholeheartedly supported the premise.

"I love it," she said. "When can we start?"
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The proposal came from the Parents Roundtable, a group of parent representatives from schools across the district that has been meeting regularly with Superintendent Nancy McGinley since 2007. McGinley said she saw their idea as a proactive step that would raise awareness.
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Hope Hannon is a member of the roundtable and has children at Fort Johnson Middle and Stiles Point Elementary. She said the Family Partnership Agreement would let parents know how they could get more involved, and that would help schools achieve their goals.

"We don't have anything that holds the family accountable," she said.

Hannon regularly volunteers at her children's schools, and she spent some of her time Thursday at Fort Johnson Middle, making copies for science classes and a band fundraiser, soliciting feedback from a teacher on the proposed agreement, and meeting with the school's guidance counselor. She doesn't want the agreement to be viewed as punitive or judgmental, and she doesn't think it is either the way it's written, she said.

Mmm. Well, let's see: "Highly-engaged" or "emerging." To "emerge" means "To rise from or as if from immersion," "To come forth from obscurity," "To become evident," or "To come into existence," as if their absence from chaperoning the school dance means they don't exist, or they're hidden, or unknown, or -- worst of all -- under water. The words are unfortunate; the concept more so.

Kids are stratified by the brands of polo shirts they wear, the brand of mp3 player they carry, the style of their shoes, the names on their jeans. Identifying one another by class and social strata begins way too early -- I know of a first-grader who wore a gold-nugget bracelet to school daily, a birthday gift from his car-dealership-owning dad. I wasn't the only one to notice, probably am not the only one who remembers it -- everyone noticed it, and probably many of his classmates and teachers remember it, so many years later. Making and leaving that impression was the purpose of the bracelet. It made a statement.

In high school, the strata are even more distinctly visible: One drives a new BMW SUV into the student parking lot, another a mid-90s Chevy; others ride the school bus through the senior year. The separatenesses are unavoidable in our society.

What is avoidable is drawing attention to them and their parents, and assigning some approbation to those parents in the least-bright-and-shiny strata. I suspect they're not "emerging," they may just be what we rather sanitizedly call the "working poor."

Laura Dobbins-Beeks, who has a senior at Academic Magnet High and serves on the roundtable, supports the agreement and took it a step further, saying parents' involvement needs to be meaningful. And Myrtice Brown, PTA president at Hursey Elementary, said this would give parents more ways to participate.

"It will make a difference in the lives of Charleston County students," she said.

No doubt it would.

I don't question the motives of this group of parents. Teachers, too, want every student's parents to be actively engaged. But that's the ideal, not the reality. And to establish a system to label parents positively or negatively, no matter how sweet the intention or the language, sets up one more kind of hierarchy for students to alternately celebrate or suffer.

Imagine it: It's not enough that my shoes, jeans and hair aren't the latest styles, or that my siblings and I share a hand-me-down Dodge when it runs (and, more often, ride the bus because it doesn't run), but now my mom and dad (who hold down a total of three service-industry jobs between them) are ranked "emerging" because both of them have to work, or because they earn wages rather than salaries, and punch a clock rather than telework or flex their schedules. They're under water; they're obscure; they're hidden; they don't exist.

Navigating school isn't tough enough for these students?

Not everyone is a fan of the proposal. Jon Butzon is director of the Charleston Education Network, a nonprofit education advocacy group. He thought it a mistake to do anything that sounded like evaluating parents when that's not happening in a more rigorous way for teachers and principals, he said.

If this is such a critical piece to schools' success, then schools need to do whatever it takes to make that happen, and that means teaching parents how to be involved, he said. Many of the parents who aren't engaged likely are the same ones who didn't finish their education, he said.

Beverly McCarty is a parent and director of the nonprofit Family Resource Center, which helps parents advocate for their special-needs children. McCarty believes strongly in parent involvement, but she questioned how parents would respond to the suggestion that they're not committed to their child's education. She often hears from parents who have personal experience with schools not doing what they should, she said.

"I would make sure (the schools) were doing everything you need to before you start judging whether others are doing it, too," she said. "This just doesn't make me feel comfortable."

If we really want to engineer some social change: Why not encourage our legislature to require employers to grant paid leave to employees for service to their children's schools? The costs aren't astronomical; businesses could write off the expense as charitable donations. Schools and the community would benefit from having more parent participation. Employers would benefit from having employees who know more and feel better about their children's school experience.

But.

Heavy lift, that. Businesses don't want interference anyway, and employers don't want to pay for time not spent on the clock, and they frankly don't want anything that distracts their employee or complicates their management of their employee.

Which is, of course, why we are where we are.

So, why not just encourage parents to participate, and leave it at that?

Elsewhere in the Lowcountry, neither Berkeley nor Dorchester 2 schools require parent involvement, but both encourage it. School-based PTA groups manage volunteer programs in suburban Dorchester 2, and Berkeley school leaders are looking at ways to track and analyze the impact of their volunteers.

Although this kind of requirement would be new for Charleston, some successful public schools already are doing this. East Cooper Montessori Charter in Mount Pleasant is a charter school, which means it's a public school governed by a school-based board of parents and community members.

Doesn't that characterize a charter school, by definition? See, charter schools are set up and governed by parents who have the time and means to be highly-engaged, and that's great for them. Traditional public schools enroll the children of the rest of our community.

The excellent-rated school wrote in its charter application that parent volunteers would be integral to its academic and financial success, and parents are asked to volunteer 40 hours each year. School Principal Jody Swanigan said it saves the school money, citing the parent who volunteered to power-wash the school (a service the school typically would've paid for) or another who volunteered his paint crew's services. Parents have done everything from cutting out laminated materials, to reviewing proposed summer reading books, to volunteering as a reading buddies, she said.

We all want our schools to be like that, and our parents to have the time, the means and the freedom represented here. Reality is, they aren't, and they don't.

Parents question mass exodus of beloved teachers

This is what happens when effective teachers leave the classroom in numbers: Parents attentive to the needs of their children step up and start asking questions.

It isn't clear why almost a dozen teachers at St. Johns High School on Johns Island have vacated their positions, all at once, and the district office is making every effort to say it isn't being "initiated by the district." But the superintendent does make clear to the Charleston Post & Courier that she "want[s] the new principal to lead change. That school is at risk, and ... I'm not comfortable with the status quo."

A public meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the high school, 1518 Main Road, to give parents a chance to air their concerns.

Take a look at the Post & Courier's notice of the matter:

The 10 St. John's High employees who will not be there during the upcoming school year are: two math teachers, one of whom was the department head; the social studies department head; a science teacher; a Spanish teacher; a special education teacher; a literacy specialist; a JROTC instructor; a coach; and a part-time band teacher.

Brenda Nelson, the district's director of community outreach, had explanations for virtually every position, such as retirement, transferring to another school closer to an employee's home, and elimination of a position because of lack of funding. The two assistant principals had to reapply for their jobs because of the school's receipt of a federal School Improvement Grant, and the guidance counselor had to reapply because that was an interim appointment, she said.

District 9 (Johns Island) Constituent School Board Chairwoman Andrea Murray said some of the staff members who are leaving are responsible for leading the improvement the school has seen in its exit exam scores. She expects scores to improve again this year, and she's worried that the departure of so many staff, especially some who were well-respected in the community, will hurt the school. Parents and residents are rattled, she said.

"I'm not clear on why there is such turnover," she said. "We had great teachers and now we won't have them and nobody is telling us what happened. We want to know why they're leaving. We are the voice of the community, and they are very much concerned about the direction of the school."

McGinley said the district has an obligation to respond if the community has questions. She's pleased with the changes the school's new principal, William Runyon, is making, and she's optimistic about its future.

The old saying goes, Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Maybe there's nothing sinister behind this sudden wave of departures by experienced, effective instructors and instructional leaders. But everyone knows from their own life experience that professionals who are satisfied in their workplace tend to stay where they are, even past retirement eligibility, and even when they have to drive further to get to work.

There have been enough other examples of townsfolk being resettled, willingly or unwillingly, when a new sheriff comes to town, that this incident on Johns Island bears closer scrutiny.

If you have children there, be sure to attend the meeting on Wednesday and ask -- loudly, clearly and until a straight answer is delivered: What is being done to keep experienced, effective professionals in their classrooms and at their posts to meet the needs of the district's schoolchildren? And what changes are being made for the sake of change that might drive such professionals out of their careers, or away from this school?

Just for good measure, it might be a good idea for parents on Johns Island to take the initiative to draft, circulate, collect and tabulate the results of a morale survey at Johns Island High School and other schools in the district. If things are great at the high school and elsewhere, administrators should welcome the opportunity to have an anonymous, objective and scientific process prove it.

Are Fairfield's parents paying attention to budget talks?

If a public hearing is held on the school budget and no parents attend to examine the proposal, what does it mean?

Such a thing happened in Fairfield County last Tuesday. Parents and other interested parties had an opportunity to discuss or ask questions about next year's budget, as required by law before the school board holds its regular meeting to adopt the plan. Their next board meeting is tomorrow night.

It's not that Fairfield's financial situation is so sweet that it runs on autopilot. In fact, there are some real issues to address.

The District’s $31,745,695 budget represents an increase in spending of $720,173, or 2.32 percent, over last year. The figure also represents a potential tax increase — something the School District has said it was not going to do this year. The potential increase, of approximately 6 mils, is more than twice the amount allowed by law. General fund revenues for 2011-2012 are budgeted at $31,397,035, a shortfall of $427,895.

A spokesperson for Fairfield County said the County would not be able to process an unbalanced budget from the School District. The tax increase would also have to be amended, they said. An increase of 3 mils is allowable, but would need the approval of County Council.
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Although the budget will be approved by the Board at the June 28 meeting, the numbers are subject to change, the District said, contingent upon funding from the state. Right now, state revenues are budgeted at $7,066,401, a 15 percent decrease from the 2010-2011 numbers.

Here's hoping a few Fairfield residents will step up and pay attention.

P.S. Holding budget hearings in May, before parents leave for beach vacations, might help boost attendance at public hearings on the budget. That said, having a General Assembly and governor who adopt their own budgets early enough that local districts can get their own work done in May would be a real help, too.

Lawmakers, listen to what matters to parents, educators

For those who may have missed this great column published last week by Philadelphia parent and writer Helen Gym at CNN.com, it's worth reading and forwarding to friends and colleagues. CNN describes Gym as "founder of Parents United for Public Education, which seeks classroom-centered investments in education budgets. She is a board member of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, where she contributes online commentary. She helped found the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School in Philadelphia Chinatown and was named the Philadelphia Inquirer Citizen of the Year for 2007 for education activism."

Gym's column reads,

Many of those who are driving education policy today are fixed on a certain set of numbers and measurements that we're told are the way to gauge a quality school. But as a parent, that's not really what matters to me about my daughter's education.

I can't tell you the number of her standardized test score from last year. I can't tell you the name of the curriculum program her school uses for math and reading. I don't know the pay scale of each of her teachers and whether that contributes to their malaise or enthusiasm in the classroom.

But here's what I can tell you about my daughter's education.

I can tell you the name of the history teacher who inspired her this year, the book that she loved and couldn't stop talking about and the topic of the reflective essay she labored to write and rewrite.

I can tell you which teachers gave homework assignments that made some of our family evenings perfectly miserable and the community service projects that had our whole family out cleaning the streets or readying a garden.

I can tell you what it felt like when the principal of a school shrugged her shoulders after I complained my daughter had been pushed down the stairs (we left that school) and what it felt like when the new principal stood outside greeting children by name as they entered every morning.

I can tell you that my mother cried when my youngest daughter's school choir sang "Arirang," a traditional Korean song, and that I loved every squeak and clank of the school orchestra.

I can tell you all of these things because as a parent, the true meaning of a quality school lies in a strong child- and family-centered educational mission that recognizes education as a "process of living" and school life as "real and vital" to our children and families, as American philosopher John Dewey wrote more than half a century ago.

This is what matters to me, but it's apparently not a priority when it comes to national debates about education reform. For many parents, the elements of what makes a quality school seem completely at odds with the national buzz about education reform:

-- While parents talk about programs rich in the arts, sciences and history, politicians talk about covering the basics through a one-size-fits-all curricula.

-- While we talk about building critical thinkers and creative problem-solvers for a complicated and dynamic world, they talk about hiring billion-dollar testing companies that infiltrate every aspect of teaching and learning, drilling the notion of knowledge down to a single test score.

-- While we talk about smaller class sizes to help students and teachers build nurturing relationships with one another, they talk about maximizing capacity and "creating efficiencies."

-- While we talk about building an experienced, stable and professional teaching force where teachers are prepared with a depth of knowledge in their subject areas and are committed to the profession, others talk about relying on a temporary teaching force or focusing on education managers.

-- While we talk about sustainable change based upon policies that have been proved to work, politicians and the private sector demand dramatic and disruptive changes that do little to significantly improve children's educational experiences.

And in this lies the critical difference between what many parents see as their hopes for a quality school system and the politicians and billionaire venture philanthropists dominating the education reform landscape. The latter have become so enamored with the structure and management of education that they've forgotten about the substance and practice of it.

So if this is what's meaningful to parents and families, how can policymakers help to support those goals?

They can start by listening to what parents around the country are saying we need our elected officials to do. Parents Across America, a national organization of parents, recently released its own blueprint for school reform.

Among the suggestions: Address the dramatic inequity in resources within and among school districts so we can maintain smaller class sizes and early childhood programs. Create strong, effective support for teachers, provide a rich well-rounded curriculum, and create multiple ways to evaluate teaching and learning. Make parental involvement meaningful and include roles for governance.

In her book "The Next American Revolution," Detroit activist Grace Lee Boggs decries a system of education that views children as passive receptacles of information that routinely passes as knowledge. Instead, she challenges us to give our children the kind of education that creates tomorrow's leaders by unleashing their creative energy "to heal the Earth and build durable economies and communities," "create a vibrant society" and a "democratic citizenry."

This is the direction our nation should be moving in, with elected leaders working alongside parents and community members to truly transform our schools.

All quiet in Florence, payroll process still in doubt

A number of parents attended the Florence District 4 school board meeting in Timmonsville last night, but the board went into executive session and kept the public in the dark.

Surely the board discussed the epic malfunction that kept school district employees from being paid on time last week -- receiving their once-a-month paychecks by bank deposit or by physical check -- but since no notes are kept of executive session, and no one is compelled by law to report what was discussed, there's no way to know.

Action is supposed to be taken though, once the board meeting is back open to the public. Some parents who showed up for the meeting Tuesday evening said they anticipated they would be allowed to listen in on the matters involving the education department and wanted to know exactly what was going on inside the district.

Clearly, those parents thought wrong.

"We're not fighting against them, we want to be able to come together and come to a quick resolution because this is a problem that's really escalating day by day fast," said concerned parent, Vernon Davis.

"We must keep showing up to let the board know that the community is dissatisfied with the direction they've taken, but we also have to make sure that we turn the tide around and make sure we head back in the right direction," said concerned resident Butch Hodges.

Plenty is already known about the problem at hand, namely the funding cuts that have led to layoffs, which led directly to last week's payroll mess.

In recent months, Timmonsville's school district has faced a series of problems stemming from a lack of finances.
The problems began in early March when the district announced that it would have to eliminate 19 positions in an effort to try to make up a large budget shortfall.

Those layoffs resulted in a reorganization within the district, where several school activities were combined and where in some cases, faculty took on additional roles.

On Friday, the layoffs resulted in another problem according to district officials, when paychecks were not deposited in district employees accounts because of what officials called a "timing error" that was the result of no longer having a finance director for the district.

That position was one of many lost in the layoffs in early March.

There may be a silver lining, however. Media reports suggest that Florence parents may be organizing themselves to take action. (If I might offer a suggestion for one such action: Electing new leaders that choose to make investment in public schools a priority is always a good start.)

They say that they realize now, more than ever, that any action taken to address some of the issues facing the district may have to be taken by them and have banded together to form a united front.

"We're just here to show them that we're still here, we're not dying, we're not going away we're trying to push forward," Davis said.

Those parents say that even though the process of solving the district's financial woes is a long and cumbersome one, it is a process that they will continue to be a part of and one in which they will not give up. A group of concerned parents is meeting to address many of the issues facing Florence School District 4 including the financial problems, layoffs, the matter involving payroll and possible consolidation attempts with Florence School District 1.

The group will meet at 7 pm Thursday in Timmonsville.

Location to be determined. Bring voter registration forms, y'all.