Did You Attend the Parent Advisory Committee? We've Got the Scoop

No one hot-button issue emerged Thursday from the first meeting of the newly reconstituted , as a gaggle of parents—so numerous that additional tables in the  faculty lounge were pushed together to seat them–joined school administrators and members to address the group’s wide-ranging concerns.

BOE Chair Frank Carrano, who led the first meeting, termed the committee strictly an opportunity for parents, the BOE and the district to communicate with each other.

“We encourage the public to come and participate,” he said, adding that he hoped the parents’ committee would “grow some ideas that will go back” to the BOE.

The , following earlier meetings where parents had met on an ad hoc basis.

As he had at the full BOE meeting earlier this month, Carrano – a document he foresees as a compendium of requests based on very specific goals.

In response to one question from the assembled parents on whether the district had a process to identify weaknesses in the schools, Carrano replied, “That could very easily be one of our goals.”

“Whatever we identify gives us something positive to focus on,” he said.

More broadly, he described the theme of this year’s budget as one of innovation, rather than the compression the sore economy had inflicted on the school district last year.

He summed up last year’s mantra as “don’t eliminate more teachers,” citing the grass-roots movement that led to the retention of physical education teacher

“By the time the budget process comes along, everyone is saying, ‘It’s over,’” observed BOE member John Prins, as supplied a calendar showing the parents that requests for the school budget are due by mid-November. 

To comply with that budget timeline, the Parents Advisory Committee hopes to hold another meeting next month.

Absent any consensus on or rank order of their concerns, the parents raised individual issues, ranging from a fifth-grade classroom size to the district’s strategic plan, to challenging advanced students and also improved parent-teacher relations.

As he has in the past, Superintendent Hernandez noted that, “We have a changing demographic in Branford.  We need to use our resources differently, prudently.”

“Put your thinking cap on,” Carrano advised the attendees of requests for the forthcoming budget document.

In an individual presentation, teacher Kate Marsland, who serves as co-chair of the gave an overview of the interaction between the BECC group, which is comprised of families, schools and members of the community such as pediatricians and clergy, with the district. 

She acknowledged that the group, which addresses the well-being of children from birth through age eight, has had some difficulty connecting with Branford residents who possess lower demographics, and she asked the assembled parents for any assistance they could provide.

Before the group dispersed, Carrano handed the attendees a research summary from the Michigan Department of Education that, among its other findings, cited a lack of parental involvement as the biggest problem facing public schools.  He remarked that he hoped the research could serve as a topic of conversation at a future committee meeting.