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City schools need parental involvement
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
City schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn says the piece that’s missing in the school system is parental involvement, and he introduced a consultant who offers to write a prescription to address it.
“We know learning starts at home,” Hathorn said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “We have the students five to six hours a day. The learning needs to continue.”
Kevin Harris of Harris Enterprise International LLC, based in Atlanta, is a Youngstown native and city schools graduate. His company has a program called Parents as Partners.
“Parental involvement starts at home,” he said.
When he was growing up, he said his mother established a zero-tolerance policy so the schools didn’t have to do it.
But he also had a support system that extended beyond his parents. That’s something that’s lacking in many children’s lives today.
The company, which is set to give a presentation at Thursday’s Youngstown City Schools Academic Distress Commission, hasn’t submitted a proposal to the district so the program’s costs haven’t been determined.
Harris, who has been a school principal, said when he talks to parents, he tries to make them understand the school is their partner.
The company conducts school climate surveys, visits student homes and trains parents. It promises a 20 percent increase in parent engagement/involvement the first year.
No decisions were made regarding the presentation.
In other business, the board unanimously passed a recommendation that board members fill out a form whenever they request any kind of information from the superintendent.
The form includes the board member or members’ name, the date of the request, date the content is due, a brief narrative of the request and an area for the board member to place a check mark, indicating if the information requested is a presentation, document/report, data, return phone call or something else.
The form must be signed and dated by the superintendent and the administrator or individual responsible for providing the information.
“This gives a paper trail and some proof that you requested it,” said Brenda Kimble, board vice president.
It also establishes the date of the information request, she said. “I think we need this,” Kimble said.
Board members also heard from Artemus Scissum, principal at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, regarding the school’s report card and goals for this school year.
The school earned an “A” on the 2013-14 report card in the overall value-added category, or the standard that measures if students met a year’s worth of growth.