You’ve heard the old joke, “What are the 3 most important things to know about real estate?”, right? Yep, location, location, location.
You want to know what the 3 most important things are when navigating your child through their education? Question, question, question. Only, I’m not joking.
When I was growing up, my Daddy worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). He retired from the LAUSD with almost 40 years under his belt. Dad was not “certificated”, didn’t hold a teaching certificate, he was “classified” which was the term given to all other LAUSD employees. Because of Dad’s time with the “board”, as we called it, I also started my working career with LAUSD. Nepotism ran rampant in the LAUSD.
All those years spent working for the LAUSD was a HUGE blessing that I am only realizing now. They exposed me to the inner workings of the second largest school district in the nation, but more importantly it taught me what each child is entitled to in terms of a public school education.
The second blessing came when my son started at Lummis Elementary in Las Vegas. It was a wonderful school with an incredibly caring staff of teachers and administrators. I was lucky to learn how to be a “parent of a school-aged child” there. Everyone was so willing to share their knowledge, calm my fears, and answer my questions.
Now we are in a “new” town with a very small district…where things are done differently then I may be used to. Fortunately, I am not afraid to ask questions.
Tonight there was an informational meeting with our School Superintendent and some concerned parents. This meeting was prompted by some letters that were sent to both the Primary and Secondary Principals, the School Board, and the Superintendent. The point of the meeting was to address the concerns addressed in the letters.
It was a tough crowd, tough subject, and the Superintendent took a beating, verbally. Being removed from the situation it was plain for me to see that there was a lack of communication…parents didn’t know that a complaint wasn’t considered “formal” until it was put in writing. If parents didn’t put it in writing it was considered a “concern” and would probably not go any further. Parents didn’t know how to get on the school board agenda or what was appropriate for a school board meeting, versus some other venue. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, there is a moral to this story, actually there is two.
The moral of this tale is to question everything. Don’t take one person’s word for it, maybe they misunderstood the question…keep asking, go to that person’s supervisor, and their supervisor, contact the state’s education office and ask them to direct you, ask other parents…YOU ARE YOUR CHILD’S ADVOCATE SO ADVOCATE.
The second moral of this tale would be to FOLLOW EVERYTHING UP IN WRITING. I don’t care if it’s just a quick email summarizing a two second conversation in the hallway…if it was important enough for you, the parent, to bring up, then write it down and forward a copy to the person you spoke with and ask for their input. And for goodness sake, hang onto it! It’s easy for someone who is bombarded with paper all day to say “gee I don’t remember that conversation”, and then you have a copy that jogs their memory.
I think if all the hurt parents had known to do these two things, tonight’s meeting would have been unneccesary…I’m glad they know now…and so do you.
Filed under: School
