Plaintalker Flops at BOE Reporting
Tuesday's school board meeting began with an hour of student performances dedicated to Hispanic Heritage Month and a recognition ceremony for students who achieved a perfect score on a recent test. The auditorium was crowded with parents, mainly Spanish-speaking, who all left after the board retreated into executive session for an hour.
When the board returned, PEP President Renata Hernandez and Schools Superintendent Steve Gallon III continued their ongoing hassle over whether the citywide group has a place in fostering parental involvement. Hernandez stated her view that it does and Gallon repeated his stance as Chief School Administrator that PTOs at each school should spearhead the cause. There is a lot more to this story that I am not inclined to go into here.
Later, there was some discussion of whether new travel policies for board members were mandated by the state or were guidelines pending state adoption. The bottom line seemed to be that they were to be treated as policy pending adoption.
Before the board got around to the actual business of the business meeting, there were two more presentations scheduled, but this writer could not stay on.
The evening's events, which included being overcharged for a taxi ride home after a very long wait outside, reinforced my feeling that the new location and other factors will force a halt to my attempts to cover these meetings. Last night I pondered the situation for quite a while without being able to come up with a blog post. This post is inadequate as a report, I admit. Maybe later I will be able to refine one or two points for a better report.
One thing I had to look up when I got home was "Nickleby," as uttered by Gallon. I never heard the term before, but apparently it is educatorese for NCLB, the federal "No Child Left Behind" program. Who knew?
--Bernice Paglia
When the board returned, PEP President Renata Hernandez and Schools Superintendent Steve Gallon III continued their ongoing hassle over whether the citywide group has a place in fostering parental involvement. Hernandez stated her view that it does and Gallon repeated his stance as Chief School Administrator that PTOs at each school should spearhead the cause. There is a lot more to this story that I am not inclined to go into here.
Later, there was some discussion of whether new travel policies for board members were mandated by the state or were guidelines pending state adoption. The bottom line seemed to be that they were to be treated as policy pending adoption.
Before the board got around to the actual business of the business meeting, there were two more presentations scheduled, but this writer could not stay on.
The evening's events, which included being overcharged for a taxi ride home after a very long wait outside, reinforced my feeling that the new location and other factors will force a halt to my attempts to cover these meetings. Last night I pondered the situation for quite a while without being able to come up with a blog post. This post is inadequate as a report, I admit. Maybe later I will be able to refine one or two points for a better report.
One thing I had to look up when I got home was "Nickleby," as uttered by Gallon. I never heard the term before, but apparently it is educatorese for NCLB, the federal "No Child Left Behind" program. Who knew?
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 8:58 AM
8 Comments:
I personally am not a PEP fan so I think that it's good that Dr. Gallon is putting Renata in her place. My child has had problems in the past in school and I took matters into my own hands and handled the situation without having to resort to outside groups such as PEP and I encourage all parents to do the same. Start with your principal/vice principal, if that don't work, go to the district Superintendent, if that don't work, go to the county Superintendent and if that don't work go to the Commisioner of Education and than if all of those steps don't work, GET A LAWYER or contact the media to hold a press conference. You can go to the Union County Proscecutor's office and go from there.
Based on my own experiences, once I got that letter to the Commisioner, the principal was calling me the same day that my letter was received to discuss my issue. It's sad that it had to come to that, but my child was suffering and after this they paid attention to my problem.
First of all "it's if that Doesn't work"...
Thanks Renata for ALL YOU DO...inspite of those LESS aware.
Hey Bernice --for the record --the hassle wasn't over whether PEP has a place with regard to parental involvement -- that is not a decision for him to make. He can however define how that looks like... The hassle is over -- if there is a need for a Parental Involvement Policy that provides parents with instruction (rules of the road)if you will on how get involved constructively.
Renata is in her place.
Parents should always start at the school site. Thats parent involvement 101. Bernice, your description of the matter an ongoing hassle is unfair to Renata and Dr. Gallon. Last night she stated her position and he stated his. Where is the hassle?
Sorry, Renata and PEP supporters, for misstating or misinterpreting the situation.
Bernice
No need to apologize Bernice-- just wanted to relay the actuality of the hassle.
Thanks for the update, Renata. I guess I am hearing that things have been resolved---hassle over. Thanks for also clearing up the matter of what was actually the issue. There was a suggesstion that Dr. Gallon did not support parental involvement. I have not observed that to be the case. I hope things work well for our students.
The "Thing" that still remains to be resolved is the creation, implementation and distribution of a Parental Involvement Policy.
With regard to support for parental involvement, I believe the gentleman is on the record as being a proponent there of...and as long as parents feel they are being engaged effectively then res ispa loquitur...
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