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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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