In preparation for a public hearing tonight on proposed new rules for when parents can visit their children in school and speak at school board meetings, a group of parents is banding together to denounce what they call a message to “shut up.”
Two proposals— one that would require parents to make an appointment before visiting their child’s school, and another that would change rules for public input at board of ed meetings— will be heard at tonight’s monthly Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m. at the Board of Education building.
Members of Teach Our Children, who are parents of kids in the public schools, are telling other parents about the proposals. Outside Shaw’s supermarket on Friday, “crap” was the most common response of parents to the visitation proposal. Click here for the comments of Juanita Pope (pictured below), who has five kids in the New Haven schools, from kindergarten to 10th grade.
She said that she has often visited her kids’ classrooms over the years, and that she’s always been welcomed and treated respectfully. She said she would plan to attend the meeting tonight, and, if she was so moved, she’d speak her mind.
Another woman – a grandmother who is very involved with her two grandkids in the public schools – said the proposal was “crap” and then repeated, loudly, into this reporter’s microphone, “Crap, and you can quote me.” Cynthia Harris (pictured at top of story) then added, “If my grandkids need me, I’m comin’. I don’t care what they say.”
Two members of the Board of Education attended TOC’s regular monthly meeting last week, along with schools’ spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo. Monday morning Sullivan DeCarlo told the Independent that they made every effort to explain what the changes would mean, and that they “are not as alarming” as some parents may think. In a letter to Teach Our Children last week, Superintendent Reginald Mayo said the draft proposals will be revised after getting more input from parents and others at the board meeting at 6 p.m tonight.
He wrote that his and the board’s intention is to increase parental and community involvement in the schools, and that “nothing we are contemplating will change the right of parents to address the Board of Education.” Meanwhile, the proposed policy states, “Any member of the public may appear before the Board at Board meetings to express his/her opinion concerning the education program of the district….Once the Board moves into regular agenda the public may participate as allowed by the Chairperson and with the following restrictions: Questions and/or comments by the public may be restricted by the Board Chairperson; The Chairperson may, at his/her discretion, curtail public discussion at any time.” Click here to read the letter, and here to send comments about the proposals to the Board of Ed.
Hazel Jones of Teach Our Children (pictured) thinks the first general statement and the specific wording of the draft policy is contradictory and wants to see the Board adopt a clear policy regarding both proposals. “Something in that policy,” she said, “has to specifically state that parents will be able to come whenever they feel the need to.”
In an hour’s work on Friday, Jones and Gwendolyn Forrest, the staff person for the group, passed out the letter and collected the names and contact information of almost every parent they spoke to. They planned to make reminder calls over the weekend and were also offering rides to get parents to the meeting.
They said one of the few people approached who wasn’t completely supportive was a woman who is a taxpayer but not a parent of a public school student. “She said that’s what administrators are for [to create policies in the interest of the school district]. Jones said parents have a much different reaction than non-parents. Click here to listen.
Juanita Pope said she would try to make it. Asked if she’d speak up, she said she wasn’t sure, but added, “If they say something out of turn or something I don’t like, it will automatically happen. You just get up and say, ‘Hold up; that’s not right,’ so I would, probably.”
This poster — part of the grassroots organizing effort by Teach Our Children about their meeting last week — was spotted on Howard Avenue in the Hill.