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Schools

Parents Come Out in Droves to School Governance Council Meeting

State officials say Stamford had the largest turnout of parents and community members interested in learning more about school governance councils.

Hundreds of parents attended and—in some cases—were turned away from an informational meeting held Monday night at Government Center about School Governance Councils. Originally scheduled for the fourth floor café, parents also congregated on the fifth floor and in the lobby to learn about the new advisory councils coming to their schools. Judy Carson from the Connecticut Department of Education, State representative Patricia Miller, and Board of Education members were in attendance.

“There are state officials here who are saying there was no turnout this large from any other city in Connecticut holding these informational meetings,” said SPS Director of Student Support Services Mike Meyer to parents at the meeting.

Eleven schools in Stamford were identified as needing School Governance Councils, a mandate by the state of Connecticut for schools failing to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in math and reading at the school level prior to July 1, 2010. According to Meyer, there would be fewer schools on the list if the results were based on current data because many schools made improvements in those test scores recently.  

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The goal of the councils is to bring together parents, teachers and community leaders at each school to advise the administration and board of education on the school’s improvement plan, analyze achievement data, and review fiscal budgets and objectives.

“We can’t look at this as a mandate, but that parent engagement is a best practice,” said Meyer. “We know that when parents participate with their children’s education the achievement level goes up.”

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The councils will consist of seven parents, five teachers, two community leaders and one principal from each school to serve two two-year terms and a required six meetings. All meetings, however, will be open to the public.

“We’re dealing with something new, but now [the parents] have a voice and that’s what this is all about,” said Miller. “What we have now is not working and someone has to be on the forefront of that change.”

“I think it’s important when parents are involved,” said Annamaria Csizmadia, parent of a Springdale student and professor at the University of Connecticut. “I teach human development and family studies, so I know the importance of parental involvement.”

Csizmadia nominated herself to serve as on the advisory councils as a parent for the Springdale school. “I found it unbelievably encouraging to see how many parents came out tonight. It was disappointing there was no expectation from the administration that there would be this big of a turnout, but it’s really exciting how many parents came out to be involved.”

The PowerPoint and handouts from the night’s meeting will be available on the Stamford Public Schools homepage

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