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Date: 09/01/2005 |
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Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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We’re Taxpayers. It’s Our Money. |
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Getting Involved At Your Child’s School |
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Seeing is believing, they say. If you are going to understand and appreciate what happens at your child’s school, parents need to find ways to be at the school on a regular basis.
Such as effort sounds easy, and it is if one knows what to do.
Although starting school has passed for this year, let’s pretend that is hasn’t!
With younger children, before they start to school, take them to the playground, walk around the school looking at the building and the facilities. Familiarize your child with the place where he will spend most of his time. Discuss with him how he will be getting there each day.
If there are gatherings announced, don’t miss them. Go and listen to everything that is said. If printed matter is distributed, take it home and look it over carefully. View it with a critical eye. Does what you read agree with what you know and believe?
Even if your child is not just starting to school, make the effort to re-familiarize him with the school setting, and ALWAYS go to school meetings that occur.
At each level of school, it always takes a while to get oriented and to learn the ropes. In elementary school you have five or six years, but in middle school, it’s only three years, and in high school four.
If you don’t get up to speed for two years, you are going to be left out!
Be nosy. Be a busybody. What goes on in your child’s school is YOUR business. You have a right to know what they are doing. Remember--you pay for that school and its employees with your high taxes. They all work for YOU!
When you attend the Open House that will be held in the first month or so, you will meet the teachers, see the inside of the school, and be advised of ways you can become involved.
Listen to those teachers. Do they sound competent? Do they speak clearly and loud enough that your child can hear them in the back of the room? Find out where your child sits in each classroom. If he’s always at the back, there’s a reason, unless, of course his last name begins with a “Z” and the teacher is seating alphabetically! Urge him to move to the front. There’s a psychological advantage to sitting on the front row of the class. Look at what is written on the chalk board. Can the teacher spell? Does she write legibly? Are instructions clearly written for assignments? Does the room look like someone wants to be there? Or does the teacher’s desk look like it did they day it came off the truck? Are the bulletin boards attractive and filled with meaningful items, or do they look like the same ones your older child had to look at three years ago? What is the content of the subject matter displayed? Does it have something to do with learning factual knowledge, or is their a subtler message portrayed? Is the teacher, at the behest of the administrators, trying to say something to your child that doesn’t agree with what he has been taught at home or what his parents believe?
If you see things you like, be sure to tell the teacher. Teachers need encouragement when they are doing good things. If you don’t like what you see, be sure to mention or question that too. If no one ever says anything, how can they know that what they are doing is unacceptable? Always be polite and respectful.
Make a point in each class you visit of introducing yourself and saying something that sets you apart from all the other parents who are there doing the same thing you are.
If your child has a problem of any kind during the school year, he will be treated with more respect and with more attention, if his teacher, the principal, the librarian, the counselor or the nurse, know your face and have met you. Chances are, the more often you are there and visit with them, the better the treatment will be for your child. That’s just human nature. Make it work for your child.
Your school is charged by law with the establishment of a Campus Advisory Team. These have been in place for many years, and so they should have by now devised a scheme to have in place fair representation. At the bottom of this article, there is a copy of the applicable Legal and Local Board Policy that governs this group. The “CAT Team” as it is called, is the decision making group for your child’s school, and being on this committee is important. This group of people set the goals and objectives for your child’s school. The goals, or “performance objectives” are supposed to be reviewed by the Board members, but I can tell you that they are simply rubber stamped.
Hopefully, the process for putting parents on the Team is such that ANY parent has a chance of getting on it. The process should be random and by drawing or some other similar method. Although it should not be a popularity contest, reading the current policy, it appears that that is what it has become. As a parent, you should try your best to get on this committee. You have the same right as anyone else to be there. Don’t wait two years to try. Start trying the first year! Notice that the policy has been constructed to limit your participation to one term unless you start being involved early.
Read through the policy page below so that you understand the importance of this committee.
One word of caution. Every school has gaggles of those who are underfoot from day one trying to curry favor for their child to the detriment of all other children. There’s a name for these folks, but I won’t mention it here. You know who they are. They will do the bidding of the administrators without any thought given to whether it is right or wrong. Just be aware that if THEY get on this committee, they will only be interested in the welfare of their own children and not anyone else’s. And just try your best not to be one of them.
Schools are selecting these team members right now, and you need to find out about membership quickly. Even if you are not selected to be a member of the CAT Team, you should attend the one meeting, that by law, should be open to the public. Remember: this is the decision making body for your child’s school, and their work should be important and done in a fair manner. What they decide in their meetings should be written up and distributed to all parents and teachers. In my opinion all meetings of the CAT Team should be open to the public, and the Katy ISD school board could make that happen.
Read through this policy so that you will understand the process. Notice that there is “legal” policy and “local” policy. The legal policy is pretty much set in stone. The local policy can be changed by the Katy ISD school board.
Note that the CAT Team should meet by law at least twice a semester. Make sure those meetings occur in your child’s school. Be certain too, that the composition of the team is what is outlined in the law. Teachers should also make sure that they have fairly chosen representation on the Team.
Notice that “Community” members and “Business” representatives get more consideration and status that parents. I fought against those provisions when I was on the Board and even wrote my own version of this Local policy to make it fairer, but the Board majority disagreed with me and would not vote for the changes I suggested.
Links To Policies Referenced In This Article:
PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING PROCESS: CAMPUS-LEVEL (Legal) PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING PROCESS: CAMPUS-LEVEL (Local)
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By Mary McGarr, Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
