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April 21, 2005
Activists lobby council for parent coordinators
Scott T. Daugherty
At a public hearing last Thursday, parents and school children
advocated for full-time family and community outreach managers
in each of the system’s 144 schools.
The parents came to City Hall in support of the Boston Parent
Organizing Network, a group that represents over 30 community
organizations, which is pushing for a budget allocation that would
fully fund these mangers/coordinators.
According to BPON, the managers would be responsible for increasing
parental involvement with their children’s education by
reducing the difficulty that many parents have in navigating the
school system. The main concerns cited by BPON members, are bilingual
communication and the difficulty working parents face in getting
involved with their children’s school.
“There is not good communication between the schools and
parents,” said Maria Gomez, the parent of a public school
student and a member of City Life’s Jamaica Plain Parent
Organizing Project, through an interpreter at an earlier press
conference. “The coordinator position would be a healthy
addition to the school environment and for parents.”
Gomez added that students sometimes have to play the role of interpreter
between teacher and parent and that this allows for incomplete
interpretation and places the student in an awkward position.
She also said that many parents don’t get the information
they need about after school activities and summer programs due
to language barriers.
The proposed 2005-06 budget already includes a ‘place holder’
— at the request of the Boston School Committee —
for $895,000 in Title 1 grant money from the federal government
that would be used to fund part-time managers in 35 schools. However,
BPON is lobbying for full funding over a three-year period to
phase in the new full-time positions. A recent BPON press release
says that the total cost of the three-year plan is $7.8 million
and that this represents only one percent of the school budget.
“There needs to be a concrete commitment,” BPON’s
director, Caprice Taylor Mendez told the Banner in a later interview.
“Schools cannot do it alone without the parents.”
While none of the city councilors disagreed that increased parental
involvement with the schools is positive, several expressed reservations
about the funding commitment.
“There is not an unlimited pool of money coming in,”
said Councilor John Tobin, chairman of the Education Committee.
“Schools get stronger with parental involvement but we need
questions answered with $7 to $8 million at stake.”
In response, Councilor Chuck Turner said that this is one of the
most important issues in his six years on the council and that
if the school system can spend money on coaching teachers to be
better teachers then “we can certainly spend this on parents.”
“To understand diversity in Boston schools you must understand
the complexities that parents face,” said Turner. “Think
of their age and economic situation.”
Councilor Maureen Feeney worried that another layer of bureaucracy
was being added to the school system and pointed out that BPS
is already 30 percent over budget. Councilor Mike Ross expressed
concern that the effort would fizzle out and suggested that there
are plenty of nonprofits in the city that could fill the role.
But Councilor Felix Arroyo indicated that the need outweighed
the costs.
“Anything that is worthy of being done costs money, a budget
is a reflection of the priorities of the community,” said
Arroyo, the next day in an interview with the Banner.
Tobin is concerned that the Title 1 monies could disappear and
the city would be left with a large funding commitment. He said
that the program should remain a pilot program with clear goals
and a process of evaluation at the end of its first year, possibly
with a sunset provision.
BPON members, however, think that it is critical to get the project
funded for the full three years. They point to successes in the
New York City school system with a similar program and to the
fact that Thomas Payzant, BPS superintendent, has made family
and community engagement one of the “six essentials”
in his five year whole school improvement plan.
“We are concerned with the state of affairs in the BPS,
particularly with the low test scores, high drop out rates and
lack of state funding, particularly in the Latino community where
the statistics are abysmal compared to white students,”
said Ayele Shakur, representing the Black Ministerial Alliance.
“The coordinators would really build the capacity of the
schools to reach out and engage parents. These coordinators could
help build a strong parent constituency to get more resources
to the schools.”
Tobin said that the feedback he was getting from some principals
indicated that they would rather have the money to spend on more
teaching staff or other areas that have been cut in recent years.
But Arroyo said that it doesn’t make sense to frame the
argument as either the managers or more discretionary money.
“When you frame it so that you have to cut off one hand
to feed the other, it doesn’t make sense to me,” said
Arroyo. “If our children are important then our money is
a part of it.”
The City Council has only begun the five-week-plus process of
examining the budget put to them from the mayor’s office.
School administrators at the hearing told the council that they
will return in May with more detailed information about the proposed
program.
“We are always hearing about ‘no child left behind’
and a lot of children are being left behind,” commented
Gomez.
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