Hi
Last night I went to the parent adivorsy meeting at the school board. I had never even heard of this group before just stumbled on it and called and found out it was open to the public. I was under the impression that the group was made up of parents with ld students. The group was to brain strom ideas of how to make the process better. Also they work on small sub-group testing out different ideas for special ed. Anyway I think you get the idea. Well our county has 1800 special ed students there were only 4 parents at this meeting! Out of the panel there were only 2 parents the rest was teachers and staff. How is that considered Parent adivory committee? All they talked about was things that benifited the teachers! Nothing about our childeren! After 2 hours of sitting there we were not allowed to say anything they decided that there would be NO Open discussion from anyone other than the memebers. I was so mad! still am! Has anyone ever heard of a group like this? Our principle told me this morning he is nominating me for the committee. But if they don’t want me they can say No which wouldn’t surprise me it sounds like they only want who they want.
Any comments welcome.
Thanks
Michele
Re: Parent adivorsy committee
Hi
I agree with you somewhat. The more I checked into this today I found out that no school personel should be on the committee. It is to be a group of parents. Talking to other people today I found out that this has been a problem. School personel on the board making decisions that benfit them not the kids. It really just upsets me because everytime you think OK I found somthing that may help. It allways leads to another dead end. People at the schools just make things so hard. It just gets to me.
Michele
Re: Parent adivorsy committee
Hmmm…. then it sounds like it’s their way of saying “look, we do *so* empower the parents!” … on paper, but not in reality. It is so frustrating. It’s almost as if they plan these things to keep you chasing one wild goose after another, lest you actually make a connection and get some needs addressed.
Where is the Advisory panel described in the school’s policy book? That would be something I would ask the lovely soul who suggested you get on the committee — it would make sense to know just what the role of the committee was supposed to be.
parent advisory committee
One of the major problems with our schools right now is just what you saw. Parents and their opinions are not really wanted. yet at the same time schools ask “how can we get parents more involved?”
Sadly what that question really means is - how do we get parents to be compliant and obedient?
The democracy that America is supposed to be sadly does not include our schools. Every school should have a real parents’ advisory committee as parents are one of the constituent parts of a school and an important part.
There is a workaround
Parent Advisory Commitee=Parent Complacement Committee
This meeting was held on school property, with a limited number of parents in attendance for a reason. The school does not want outspoken, civil rights, IDEA, NCLB knowledgable parents there.
You have a few workarounds but I doubt that a forum held on school property would be receptive to parental opinion. Of course, parents could always meet elsewhere.
How many parents of LD children are there at school? Were all parents invited to this meeting? A flyer, a brochure, something posted in the hall advising of meeting time & date. Is this meeting common knowledge? If not, why not?
I suspect only quiet parents may be selected to attend the meeting at this time. Volunteer in the class, speak with like parents, collect parents emails & phone numbers. Next meeting there may be more parents, invited or not. You may meet a few parent advocates along the way, learn of both good and bad situations. Most important benefit is parental communication & support. Be sure to take parents of other LD children with you at IEP meetings. This in itself conveys to the school that parents of LD children have a support system and knowledge of each others existence, successes & difficulties.
Of course, if everything is going well this volunteer effort benefits the school, its personnel and assists the children and teachers in the classroom. If things arent going well you can count on local involved support to accomplish whats needed.
Good luck !
It sounds like you have to get on The Panel to get to speak — that they don’t have an open forum. So, even though it is open to the public and the public is welcome to find out what they are working on, it is not a place for “just anybody” to walk in and bring up the issues they think are important.
I can understand being mad since that’s what you thought it was — but that probably wasn’t what they had in mind when they started the Advisory Panel. Sounds like they have a group of school personnel that is concerned with doing things better, and before they make decisions about how to do that, they want to have the parents represented. This is not a bad thing — it’s just not what you expected (a place for parents to work with teachers to address issues important to the parents). It is, however, often a very effective way to make sure different groups and perspectives are represented; an open forum can be long on discussion and short on action.
I’d try and get on the committee ;)