Working to increase parental involvement through Parent University

If you check the District 150 website, it touts the Parent University as something that is "new". The fact of the matter is, Parent University has been around since 2008 and it was brought to the District by Board of Education (BOE) member Martha Ross, who had visited Parent University in other cities.

The first Parent University was held in 2009 at the Civic Center. It was well attended, as it was part of a school fair where parents registered for the upcoming school year and they also received book bags for students. The parents would attend sessions related to issues that they told the Board they were interested in seeing via a survey they filled out - before getting the book bags. 

The Distirct 150 Title 1 Director holds the purse for the Parent University, however, it is the input from parents that should drive what sessions are offered. During the Hinton Administration, Sandra Burke was the parent liason and parents were able to give input via Parent Advisory Groups that the District is required by the State to have in every Title 1 school. Each school then sends parents to the district wide Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) quarterly meetings, to help ensure that parents are involved and informed about programs and policies in the school district.

Individuals from the PAC should then be appointed to a BOE sub-committee, where input is to be given directly to the BOE via members who chair the sub-committee. The BOE members who currently co-chair the District 150 Parent Advisory Committee is Martha Ross and Lynn Costic.  As Sandra Burke is now retired, the district wide PAC meetings are now led by York Powers (who is new to the area). York is the District's Family & Community Coordinator and works under Rebecca Lindholm, who is the District's Title 1 Director. Although I sit on the District 150 Parent Advisory Committee, I have not been able to obtain any information on whether District wide PAC meetings have been held this year.

I attended the first Parent University that was held at Glen Oak Community School. There were about ten (10) parents there, along with a couple of BOE members (one of which seemed to be there mainly to take advantage of the opportunity to pass around her petition to retain her school board seat) and several teachers, who attended to teach sessions.

Marsha Dodson of Empower Parents was the speaker at that event. The Glen Oak Parent University was Mrs. Dodson's second trip to P-Town to speak to parents. Dodson was brought in from San Diego, so it is quite unfortunate that parents did not turn out to take advantage of her expertise.

At the Harrison School Parent University, Dodson gave a thirty minute keynote address and then parents were to spend the remainder of their evening participating in smaller workshops, including:

-Job Readiness (Tri-County Urban League)

-Healthy Eating (American Cancer Society)

-Emergency Preparedness (Peoria County Health Department)

-Legal Services (Prairie State Leagal Services)

-Peoria Promise (Peoria Promise Foundation)

-Housing Assistance (METEC)

-Getting College Ready for Parents (Empowering Parents)

-H.S. Curriculum Fair (Dist. 150)

-Reading Strategies (Dist. 150)

-Testing and Assessments (Dist. 150)

-Gifted Programs (Dist. 150)

-Compass Learning (Dist. 150)

-Primary Math Strategies (Dist. 150)

-Middle School Math Strategies (Dist. 150)

-High School Math Strategies (Dist. 150)

To learn that only five (5) parents came out to the Parent University is unfortunate, because there is some expense in putting these things on. It is also unfortunate that the Parent University seems to have gotten away from the issues that parents revealed in survey that they were most interested in learning about. The photo from the District website, seems to indicate that only one (1) parent showed up for the session that Dodson gave on "Getting College Ready for Parents."

A few of the issues that parents previously indicated they were interested in: how to advocate for your child; how to best communicate with teachers; dealing with issues of bullying; getting teachers involved in parent activities; utilizing parent resource centers and working on computers in resource areas; or support meetings to help parents cope with the “teenage” years, etc.

There are three (3) hubs where Parent Universities are being conducted: Glen Oak Community Learning Center, Harrison Community Learning Center, and Northmoor Primary School. What parents want to see will vary from hub to hub. Surveying parents on their needs most certainly have an impact on turn out. It will be interesting to see what level of workshops will be available to parents who attend the sessions at the Northmoor Primary School hub.

Title 1 helps give every parent a voice in their child's education

I have been watching closely as President Obama reviews NCLB and makes revisions. The part I am particularly concerned about is Title 1 as it relates to parental involvement. So far, he has left it alone and I am hopeful that he will continue to be hands off, because it has several components that could actually give schools some help in making a difference in increasing parental involvement.

ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS (for NCLB accountability purposes, charter schools are treated like all other public schools, as they are public schools) are required to have Title I services that include meaningful parental involvement policies (agreed upon by a parental advisory group) and school practices that lead to increased student achievement. I personally believe that development of parental advisory groups are important in urban (inner city) schools, because middle class parents are usually in governance roles (e.g. PTO), even though the larger population is low-income parents, who for what ever reason, are more than likely not inclined to be members of a school's PTO.

State: Channing violates federal parental involvement law

ELGIN — Channing Memorial Elementary School in Elgin is in violation of the parent involvement requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

ISBE’s findings were presented to the Elgin School District U46 Board of Education by Channing parent Krista Badani at Monday night’s regular board meeting.

Badani, of Elgin, is one of 59 parents who filed a complaint with ISBE in February that the school was not involving parents, a requirement to receive federal Title I funds. That was after “parents did everything within our means to bring attention to the problems and get the district to comply with these federal guidelines,” she said.

They joined the U46 Citizens Advisory Council’s Committee for Family and Community Engagement; spoke to the district’s director of communication, chief of family and community engagement and school board; and sent emails and copies of Title I requirements for parent involvement to Gonzalez and U46 Superintendent Jose Torres. They also met with officials from the Kane County Regional Office of Education and sought guidance from ISBE, according to Badani.

“What astounds us most is that even when parents follow protocol and the chain of command, remain polite, and bring forth data and evidence of wrongdoing, this administration and the school board continue to fail by their inaction. … Somehow along the way, the administration has forgotten that this is about what is best for the children and families at Channing, the lowest-performing school in the district,” she said.

Knew about concerns - Torres admitted Monday, “We had heard concerns about Title I parent involvement. We believed they had been addressed.”

No Child Left Behind makes Title I funding available to provide supplemental instructional services for specific students — or entire schools — who have been identified as failing, or most at risk of failing, to met state standards, according to the ISBE website.

And it agreed with parents Channing is in violation of No Child Left Behind by not having a parent involvement policy, a parent-school compact developed with parents or Title I meetings.

30-day deadline - Those findings give the school and district 30 days to ensure parents are part of the school support team, develop a written parental involvement policy with parents and revise its parent-school compact to include input from parents. The document also gives U46 three months to prove a Title I meeting was held at the school and that parents were involved.

Gonzalez took a leave of absence from the school in February, and U46 announced he would not return as principal in mid-March. The district has declined to comment on the reason for his leave and said he has asked to be reassigned to a classroom for next school year. Badani said parents have not gotten a response from the district about Title I funds, but it has met with Stewart.

“She, in turn, has shown us that she is indeed excited to work with families to achieve great things at our school,” she said. “We are confident that together, with her leadership and actions, we will get there.” Source

How does Guy Cahill fit in?

From the District 150 Website
Planning and Budget Committee Members

As announced at the February 2 meeting, the Board of Education is establishing a special committee to assist with the school district's budgeting issues. Below is a list of the appointed members to the Planning and Budget Committee:

Mr. Pat Roesler, Chief Financial Officer, G & D. Integrated

Mrs. Lois Boaz, Retired Caterpillar Executive with experience in accounting, business analysis and Six Sigma

Mr. Erik Bush, Chief Financial Officer, Peoria County

Mr. David Underwood, Vice President of Finance & Chief Financial Officer Proctor Hospital

Mr. Charles Randle, President, Illinois Business Financial Services

Dr. Bernie Goitien, Professor of Business Management & Administration at Bradley University

Mr. Ken Casper, Retired Banker

Mr. Larry Williams, Retired Superintendent and Business Manager of Illinois Valley Community School District

The main functions of the committee include:

* develop financial templates for presenting and outlining the district budget; allowing easy assessment and financial impact of proposals, suggestions and changes

* establish a "district finances" section on the district website

* create one-page documents explaining school district financial terms and how these issues impact Peoria Public Schools. Examples include: Title I, Special Education Funding, Corporate and Property Taxes, Public Building Commission Funding and TIF Districts.

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Curious as to how this group works with Guy Cahill, the District's Controller. Do they have full access to all of District 150's financials? Will they be able to rely on administration employees to supply them with information? In a recent TimesObserver article Mr. Cahill stated "the district has no choice but to make cuts if it hopes to maintain the A+ bond rating it now has from Standard & Poor’s." I don't know a lot about bonds, but I do know you want an A+ rating if you need to finance long term projects (i.e., construction). If this Committee validates the cuts that Superintendent Hinton proposes, what is the window on preservation of the A+ bond rating?