School parents take cooperative approach to reform
Credit: David Walter Banks
Parent volunteer Maria Garcia helps a table of kindergartners with math exercises at Lexington Simple School in Pomona.
Lexington Unproblematic Schoolhouse exhibited many of the classic characteristics of schools that wage parent-trigger campaigns in California.
The schoolhouse had revolving-door leadership, pervasive student bullying, low student expectations and test scores, and dismal instructor morale, according to interviews with parents and teachers.
By the fourth dimension a local resident called the Los Angeles-based parent-trigger advancement group Parent Revolution for help in 2013, parent frustration and anger had reached a tipping indicate.
But parents at the Grand-12 school never collected a single signature to mount a petition bulldoze nether California's controversial Parent Empowerment Deed. They never sought a charter school conversion, either, i of the sweeping structural actions permitted under the law.
Rather, they used the so-called parent-trigger police force every bit leverage. After months of organizing, meeting, and negotiating, the parents, chief, and superintendent signed a memorandum of understanding last May committing to actions including stronger student bailiwick and improved parent interest. They even marked the occasion with a huge fiesta.
"Nosotros were worried that the commune didn't want to piece of work with united states of america," Maria Garcia, a member of the Pomona Parents and Customs Members Union, said in Castilian during a recent conversation at a local Starbucks, where Lexington parents often gather.
Everyone involved in the negotiations agrees that the threat of using options under the parent-trigger was ever-present throughout the discussions nigh Lexington. The school is located about 30 miles eastward of Los Angeles, and well-nigh 90 percentage of the school's 600 students are Hispanic and come from low-income families.
"You've got to allow that (parent) frustration and anger come out," said Pomona Unified Schoolhouse District Superintendent Richard Martinez. "That's something y'all as a leader … become paid to do, to accept a few of those hits – sometimes a lot of those hits."
Today, all parties say they are pleased with the agreement, which included hiring a teacher on special assignment in charge of student subject area, creating iii new computer labs, adding extracurricular sports similar soccer and basketball, and holding parent education sessions on subjects ranging from diet to bullying.
So how did Lexington avoid a full-blown parent-trigger campaign like the one that transformed an Adelanto, Calif., school into a charter, or the divisive petition drive currently underway in Anaheim, Calif.?
The key players involved in Lexington's negotiations believe information technology took persistence, a detailed assessment of needs, leadership, and a willingness to accept responsibility for by missteps.
Pomona Unified Schoolhouse District Superintendent Richard Martinez, who was familiar with California's drama-filled parent-trigger campaigns, said he was determined to take a different route.
"You've got to allow that (parent) frustration and anger come out," Martinez said during a recent interview in the school principal's role. "That'south something yous every bit a leader … get paid to do, to take a few of those hits – sometimes a lot of those hits."
Honest conversations
That'southward not to say that Lexington's "nontrigger" campaign was easy. During the early stages of the process, the school's chief left for a position with another district. Over a half dozen-twelvemonth flow Lexington has had five principals.
Compounding the school'due south longstanding troubles was the city of Pomona itself. Pomona, where near a third of residents live beneath the poverty line, has been grappling with violent crime for years. In January 2014, a human being was shot in the park adjacent to Lexington's heavily gated campus just as students were beingness dismissed for the day. The school's principal and security officer ran to the homo'due south aid while ordering a school lockdown.
Photograph by David Walter Banks
Silvestre Maravilla, principal of Lexington Elementary School in Pomona.
"It was very hostile at the school," Silvestre Maravilla, Lexington's principal said.
Maravilla, who had been the principal of a Pomona eye school, was hired to have over Lexington in December 2013. Back then, he recalled, "Teachers would sit in their cars in the parking lot waiting for the beginning bell to ring in the morning. … People didn't want to be hither."
Initially, district officials weren't great on Parent Revolution's presence in Pomona either, and tried to "blow us off," said Jesus Sanchez, who was then Parent Revolution's lead organizer in Pomona. Just Sanchez, who is now the primary strategy officer for the private consulting firm Splendid Educational Solutions, said eventually district and school leaders were "dauntless enough to have honest conversations" with parents.
In one case negotiations began in hostage in December 2013, the principal and superintendent attended every coming together with parent marriage members. For the next 17 hours of meetings, they listened and took copious notes as parents – who had carefully crafted their arguments with Sanchez's assistance – detailed their concerns. Then Maravilla drafted a strategy to tackle Lexington's challenges.
A phoenix rises
A native of East Los Angeles, a predominantly low-income and Hispanic neighborhood, Maravilla said he relates to Lexington'due south parents, which made information technology easier to find common ground.
"(The parents) were really disenfranchised," he said. "They had every right to be upset."
One of Lexington's challenges likewise involved dismantling an unsanctioned parent-teacher arrangement affiliate on campus, which parents and teachers say heightened tension at the school. Maravilla said the school hopes to start a PTA chapter in its identify.
Veteran 6th-grade instructor Michael Mitchell admits some staff members initially were concerned most individual teachers and parents being singled out and criticized. Simply he said once it was clear that virtually people involved in the discussions were genuinely trying to serve students, the school community relaxed.
"The (parents) were like the phoenix that rose out of the ashes," he said.
Lexington always had some adept teachers, simply a few "didn't do or couldn't do all they could practice to aid students," parent Liliana Martinez said in Spanish, through a translator. The female parent of two Lexington students said she talked with her girl's teacher about getting her better prepared for high school last school year, simply at that place was no support outside the classroom.
For his function, Maravilla evaluated every Lexington teacher and had the superintendent's back up to remove two teachers from their positions. Other teachers received boosted support or changed grade levels, which he said has boosted their confidence.
To encourage team-building, Maravilla said the office is always stocked with coffee and snacks, and on Fridays, Lexington teachers are encouraged to wear their school T-shirts.
"(Maravilla) has created an surroundings where teachers and parents are working together," Garcia said.
During a recent potluck meal with parents for an English-learner advisory commission meeting, Maravilla recalls joking with parents: "Think how much you used to hate me?"
"We tin laugh about it now," he said, smiling broadly. And then he added: "In the terminate, we all wanted what was best for the kids."
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Source: https://edsource.org/2015/school-parents-take-cooperative-approach-to-reform/77050
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