Thursday, February 04, 2010

School Needs Plan for Parents

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
          Rio Grande High must find "meaningful" ways to involve parents as the redesign of the school progresses, the state Secretary of Education has ordered.
        Secretary Veronica Garcia last week upheld an earlier decision by the Public Education Department that APS did not have "meaningful involvement" with parents in its restructuring of Rio Grande High School. Nor did it have an established process to get that involvement, according to the decision.
        Several parents had filed a complaint March 2009 saying they were left out of the process.
        However, APS does not have to go back and redo its plans. Instead, it must promise to include parents in the future.
        "From here on out, we have to develop a plan for meaningful parent input," said APS assistant superintendent Eddie Soto, who described a meeting Sunday with parents as "very positive."
        APS also must revise its districtwide parent involvement policy by March 24 and describe how parents will be "meaningfully" involved.
        But Rio Grande Parent Teacher Organization president Terrie Hamilton said so far things are anything but positive.
        The PTO secretary, for instance, was detained by police last week for passing out fliers to parents about the Sunday meeting, and Hamilton said the PTO was planning to file a complaint with Garcia.
        APS confirmed the incident, saying the parent did not have permission to distribute fliers on campus. Hamilton says the restructured school is working as well as APS says. "We're now trying to foster a cooperative nature with APS and the school here," she said.
        Some of the changes at Rio Grande are:
        • Offering a $5,000 stipend to teachers and more training for them during the summer.
        • Creation of a ninth-grade academy.
        • An emphasis on doing school projects.
        Hamilton said Garcia's decision will mean increased parent involvement at other high-poverty APS schools that receive federal Title 1 funding. "Parents need to be more involved on every level in order for their children to succeed in schools," Hamilton said.
        Principal Linda Torres said while she welcomes a look at how the changes are occurring, although it doesn't come at a good time for the staff.
        "The implementation of the (redesign) and all the work and collaboration that's gone into that has our plates pretty full right now," she said, adding that teachers are also looking at their own instruction.
        "...But if we don't have the involvement of the parents, their kiddos aren't going to do very well."
        The staff is trying to come up with ways to get parents involved, and a parent meeting will be held Feb. 21, Hamilton said.
        By March 19, Superintendent Winston Brooks or a designee is to conduct a public meeting to develop a plan for parental involvement. It is supposed to include the roles and responsibilities of parents in restructuring and a provision for parents to be involved in the quarterly reviews of progress.
       

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