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Highlands Today

Do Parents Care About Schools?

Jesse Osbourne/Highlands Today

From left: Katelyn Bonini, Erin Bonini and Lesley Bonini listen during a reading workshop at Park Elementary School in Avon Park Tuesday night.

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By MARC VALERO | Highlands Today

Published: November 19, 2007

SEBRING — Beckie Townsend cuts a cardboard letter "N" that will have a noodle attached to it to help students at the Kindergarten Learning Center learn the alphabet.

Next, she cuts a "B" that will be accompanied by a bean to also be used for a letter recognition exercise.

One day a week Townsend volunteers in her 5-year-old daughter's class and reads stories and sings songs. She also makes copies and prepares materials in the teacher work area.

As vice president of the school's parent teacher organization (PTO) and co-chair of the school advisory council (SAC) and volunteer, Townsend is a very involved school parent. But despite various efforts by school administrators to reach out to parents, many don't become actively involved in school events and functions.

"I'm shocked that many parents are not involved, because we don't have a very big turnout at PTO or SAC," Townsend said. "I'm sure that many parents work and I understand that, but still, our meetings are at 5:30 p.m."

With an enrollment of about 330 students, only about 15 parents show up at the meetings, she said. Sebring High School parent Donna Keith believes "the more the merrier," is best for school meetings.

The first Sebring High School Advisory Council meeting in October had a good turnout, Keith said, with about 30 people in attendance.

But after counting the teachers and about nine students in attendance, Keith realized there were only about 10 parents at the meeting.

"I definitely think there could be more parent involvement," she said.

It's always the same parents who are involved.

Aside from committee participation, at the minimum, schools work to engage parents in their child's education.

Kindergarten Learning Center Principal Andrew Lethbridge said about 150 parents attended the school's curriculum night, which was especially helpful for parents with their first child in school. Parents learned about what is expected of their children and the assessment tests used at the kindergarten level.

The turnout for school advisory council and parent/teacher organization meetings have been relatively low at all the schools he has worked, Lethbridge noted. The meetings earlier in the school year have more parents and fewer show up as the year goes on.

There is a core group of 15 to 20 parents who attend the SAC and PTO meetings, he said, but there is a larger number of parents who volunteer in the classroom, but who don't attend the meetings.

"The majority of parents find a way to be involved and there's a lot of different ways to be involved," Lethbridge said.

At many schools, at certain times of the year report cards are not sent home with the student. Parents must go to the school to pick up the report card and have a conference with the teacher about their child's progress.

"It's always the goal," to have more parents involved, Lethbridge said. You need that partnership between the school and the home for the child to learn as much as they can.

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