Melissa Bailey Photo
As the school reform road show hit East Rock, two of the most active parents in town said they still don’t get what their role is in the change campaign.
“I don’t understand what you want us to do,” Kendra Ranelli, president of the Hooker School PTA, told Mayor John DeStefano.
The exchange took place at a meeting Wednesday night hosted by East Rock’s two aldermen. It was the latest stop on a citywide tour by DeStefano, schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo (pictured above) and school reform czar Garth Harries. The trio has been spreading the word around town about their school reform plan, which aims to close the achievement gap and cut the dropout rate in half in five years, and make sure every public school kid can succeed in college.
The message they heard from parents Wednesday wasn’t new. They heard the same thing in October, in Westville at one of the district’s other top-performing schools, Edgewood. At the time, DeStefano conceded the parental involvement plank of school reform remained “incomplete.” His answer Wednesday still left parents wondering what to do.
Wednesday’s event took place in the renovated, 356-seat auditorium of the new Worthington Hooker School, which just opened on Whitney Avenue. About 30 parents, neighborhood activists and school officials sat down in newly upholstered chairs to listen to the pitch. For a community that erupts in vigorous debate over the gate behind the school, the meeting was “mild,” said one participant. The three officials spoke for 15 minutes on the school reform plans, then took questions.
“What can we do to get parents more involved?” asked Anna Festa, a member of the Hooker PTA. She said education starts in the home, and some parents need to take a more active role in their children’s learning.
Superintendent Mayo said the school system has revived the citywide Parent Teacher Organization to do just that. The district picked two active parents from each of the district’s 47 schools and placed them on a committee that meets monthly. That’s a new development since October, when the school system had no specific way to get parents on board the school change campaign.
“We are hoping that those two parents from each school will give us the help that we need to get other parents involved at each and every one of our schools. That’s the key,” Mayo said.
“We’ve got to have all parents helping. … We’ve got to get this whole community involved if we want the bar to be raised for each and every kid in this school district.”
Festa is one of those parents. She has showed up to each meeting of the citywide PTO. The parents are giving feedback on surveys and on how to implement SchoolNet, an online student database. Wednesday, she asked how the district aims to reach parents who don’t go to those meetings.
“I’d be happy to go door to door,” and make phone calls to recruit more parents to the PTO, Festa said, but “that has been done.” Some parents are just hard to track down, she said.
DeStefano outlined three general tasks for parents: get involved their own kids’ education; help figure out how to get other parents involved; and lobby in Hartford for resources for public school students. Beyond that, DeStefano said he’ll “kick the question back to you” — the citywide PTO will help the district figure out the difficult question of how to reach other parents.
Ranelli was left perplexed.
“I still don’t understand what school reform is,” Ranelli said.
“I think you need to give parents who are leaders coming to your group examples” of how parents can get involved. “I don’t understand what you want parents to do.”
DeStefano acknowledged he has a “huge communication job to do” to explain school reform. He revisited the basic goals of the reforms, and the broad outline of how they’ll get done — including grading schools into three tiers and giving them individualized management plans (closing and reorganizing the weakest ones), attracting and retaining talented staff, and setting high expectations.
Harries jumped in in attempt to clarify. “There is not a 500-page plan” delineating how the reforms will unfold.
“We need to communicate better,” he said, “but we also need to work through the ideas” in settings like this one.
“And listen a lot more than we have,” added Mayo.
The response left Festa feeling in the dark.
“We did not get a clear answer” on what parents’ roles will be, she said after the meeting.
“We know what your goals are, but where do we start from? Where’s the starting line?” she asked. “They’ve gotten parents involved to an extent [at the citywide PTO], but not in a broad way. There’s still a lot of confusion out there.”
After the meeting, East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar agreed. “We all believe in the direction” the reforms are headed, he said, but the district needs to “clarify” parents’ role.
Some previous stories about New Haven’s school reform drive:
• Failing Schools Deadline Set
• Teachers Give Tough Grades — To Themselves
• Watchdog: State Lags In Race To The Top
• Reform Drive Looks Beyond Test Scores
• She Made Time To Get Off Work
• New Leaders Sought For City High Schools
• Report Card Night Revamped
• Parents Challenged To Join Reform Drive
• Where Do Bad Teachers Go?
• Reform Committees Set
• Mayo Extends Olive Branch
• School Board Makes Mom Cry
• Next Term Will Determine Mayor’s Legacy
• Reading Target Set: 90% By February
• Teacher Pact Applauded; Will $$ Follow?
• Mayor “Not Scared” By $100M
• Useful Applause: Duncan, AFT Praise City
• Reformer Moves Inside
• After Teacher Vote, Mayo Seeks “Grand Slam”
• Will Teacher Contract Bring D.C. Reward?
• What About The Parents?
• Teachers, City Reach Tentative Pact
• Philanthropists Join School Reform Drive
• Wanted: Great Teachers
• “Class of 2026” Gets Started
• Principal Keeps School On The Move
• With National Push, Reform Talks Advance
• Nice New School! Now Do Your Homework
• Mayo Unveils Discipline Plan
• Mayor Launches “School Change” Campaign
• Reform Drive Snags “New Teacher” Team
• Can He Work School Reform Magic?
• Some Parental Non-Involvement Is OK, Too
• Mayor: Close Failing Schools
• Union Chief: Don’t Blame The Teachers
• 3‑Tiered School Reform Comes Into Focus
• At NAACP, Mayo Outlines School Reform
• Post Created To Bring In School Reform
• Board of Ed Assembles Legal Team