Parents Ask: What About Us?

Though theyve been told no child will be left behind, parents feel theyre being left behind when it comes to the new school reforms.
"They are taking everything that was, throwing it out the window, and replacing it with too many changes, too fast," said Rob Caloras, a parent of two.
Parents and educators came together on September 25 at Thomas A. Edison High School to sound off about the proposed regulations for the selections of members that will serve on the Community District Education Councils. Michele Cahill, senior counselor for Education Policy, moderated the forum, which strayed from the initial topic.
Under the law passed in June, the Community Councils will replace the current school boards, which seems simple until the question of how to choose the nine parents, two local residents or business owners and one high school student. Because the serving parents are chosen by the officers of the PTAs and the two other members will be appointed by the borough president, many parents feel they have no voice in who will represent them and no way to challenge the decisions made by them.
Its a lot to take in, but there is also the new system of superintendents, the new curriculum and the ever-present budget concerns.
Caloras, who is the corresponding secretary for the PTA at PS 221 in Douglaston and a tutor at PS 82 in Jamaica, is worried that not only are curriculum changes requiring teachers to learn entirely new methods of teaching, parents have to relearn how to interact with schools.
"The bureaucratic system has been entirely revamped," he said. "There were a lot of problems, but its being replaced with a whole new structure. Sometimes you take what you have and try to fix it instead of throwing everything out."
Many parents spoke out about one of the most controversial aspects of Chancellor Kleins educational overhaul: parent coordinators. According to the job description, the parent coordinators who will be paid up to $38,000 a year will work to increase parental involvement and act as a sounding board for parents concerns.
"They seem to be doing nothing more than what the PTA did, but the PTA did it for free and their vested interest was their children," said Caloras.
In some schools, confusion over what the parent coordinators are supposed to do has resulted in the coordinators acting as disciplinarians, student monitors or administrative staff. David Pinzon, a parent, the PTA president at MS 172 and co-president of the presidents council for District 29, suggested that the hiring of parent coordinators should be at the principals discretion. That would allow schools with non-functioning PTAs to fill the office of parent coordinator while possibly letting other schools use a portion of that offices salary to make improvements or buy supplies.
"It seems like an awful lot of money to spend when theyve cut school aides and afterschool programs," he said. "I think they have their priorities a little skewed. Chancellor Klein makes a point of saying how important it is for people to be involved, but bringing parent coordinators into schools with functioning PTAs is duplication of services."
And there are other apparent oversights. Samuel J. Greenberg, who is the parent of a high school student and vice president of the PTA at The Academy of American Studies in Long Island City as well as a member of the legislative committee of the Chancellors Parent Advisory Council (CPAC), angrily noted that parents of high school children will have no representation in the new councils.
"High schools in New York have had a fairly dismal reputation and have always been stepchildren as far as representation is concerned. Maybe there is a connection," he said, stressing that he was speaking as a parent and not a PTA or CPAC member. He suggested turning the remaining five districts from the allowed 37 into high school districts that could properly serve students, parents and the community.
"We used to have high school superintendents in Queens," he said. "That office was abolished along with all the district offices and nothing has come up to replace it. Weve been disenfranchised. We have no representation."