How to Get Involved to Improve your Child's School

Panicked about school? The choice might be right under your nose. Your neighborhood’s underused and struggling public school just might be your frog prince waiting to be kissed.

When my daughter Maya was two years old, I consciously chose to ignore all the desperate park chatter about schools. Parents angling to get their kids into prestigious private schools seemed to miss the point of education, and even childhood, for that matter. Seriously, do kids need a celebrated kindergarten noted on their curriculum vitae to be considered for an Ivy League university? But as I really began to listen to the park conversations, it became clear that most of these anxious parents were not social climbers seeking the perfect school for their progeny; rather, they were rational city-dwellers who, quite simply, found themselves with few academic options.

In Chicago, choice public schools admit students by lottery or testing (with some weight for proximity), and needless to say, the competition is fierce. The city’s entire five-year-old population is in frenzied competition for a few hundred spots, many of which are already gobbled up by sibling preferences or inscrutable, discretionary principal selections. It’s statistically harder to get your kindergartener into a top public magnet school than it is to get your high school senior into Harvard.

Given the cost of private school, the uncertainty of admissions, the problems associated with public school (including budget cuts, high class sizes, low test scores, busing, concerns of violence, closures, and strikes), No Child Left Behind, and a state ranked forty-ninth in primary education state funding per student, it is no wonder why so many Chicago families decide to call it quits, and move to the suburbs.

If the thought of spending the rest of your life in the suburbs when your heart and family life is in your city, don’t despair. You can fix your neighborhood school. Really. Even if everyone says the school is a nightmare on stilts, it can be done. And, it’s easier than you think.

Seven years ago, if someone had asked, “Would you consider Nettelhorst, our neighborhoods under-used and under-performing elementary school?” the possible responses ranged from blank stares to outright laughter. I didn’t know a single park parent who had ever been inside.

So it was quite a leap of faith when my friend and I ventured inside to see just how bad the school actually was. After showing us around for three hours, the new principal asked us what it would take for us to enroll our kids. Stunned by her candor, we came back the next day armed with an extensive wish list. The principal read our list and said, “Let’s get started girls, it’s going to be a busy year!”

At the time, we were too naïve to know that few principals would entertain advice from energized neighborhood parents interested in making “improvements,” let alone come right out and ask for it.

Why do the very principals who desperately need help rebuff well-intentioned neighborhood parents who pledge themselves to addressing these challenges? All public school principals are under the gun: State and federal funding for education continues to decrease. No Child Left Behind legislation threatens to close underperforming schools. Stretched budgets leave schools understaffed with underpaid, disheartened teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and crumbling infrastructures.
And yet, most principals have trouble asking for or accepting help because they’re reluctant to take on any additional liabilities. Principals are wary of involved parents because “offers to help” will almost certainly hijack their valuable time and energy. Occasionally, such “kind offers” may serve as window dressing to a simultaneous appeal to the district’s superintendent or legal department. Consequently, many principals, even fairly successful ones, have constructed impenetrable boxes around themselves.

Most public school reform movements derail when well-meaning parents start off on the wrong foot with the principal. If you begin the conversation by shouting, blaming, or demanding, or, if you come across elitist, hostile, or condescending, your movement’s not going to get very far. Removing a principal is a long, hard slog, so everything hinges on your first few meetings.

Woo the Principal

• Your parent group will only have one chance to make a good impression. Schedule a meeting for late after school or on a weekend. Send two or three of the most congenial people in your group, no more. Wear jeans.
• Ask about the principal’s hopes and dreams for the school. Naturally, these are your dreams, too.
• You want to create a collaborative environment that will benefit everyone, not just your precious kids.
• If the principal introduces you to stakeholders, be congenial, keep your mouth shut, and listen.
• Telegraph your confidence that the principal is a great administrator, and is even a greater educator. Once you establish trust and rapport, you can lobby for whatever you want down the road.

Parents can’t improve schools without principals, and principals can’t do it without parents. So, first and foremost, you need to get your foot in the door. Mom was right: you’ll get more flies with honey than vinegar.

Create a Wish List

Our principal understood that Nettelhorst suffered from the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma: The school needed to improve to attract neighborhood families, yet it needed that same community to help direct, enable, and sustain that change. Instead of being hurt, angry, or threatened that we didn’t appreciate how far her school had already traveled, she took a risk of faith and asked us to dream big.

What will have to be in place to convince your neighborhood to return to its public school en masse? Imagine what your ideal elementary school might look like, how it would feel, and what programs it might offer. Cobble together an elaborate wish list: low teacher/student ratios, accelerated academic programming, foreign language instruction, conceptual math, unfettered parental access, beautiful classrooms and public spaces, and stellar enrichment programs, and so on. If your school’s going to be a choice, a real choice, it must deliver on all these fronts. Even the most risk-tolerant parents won’t risk their children’s education, so get ready to roll up your sleeves.

Assessment

What are the school’s current challenges? Do some due diligence on the web: the School Board’s official site, and online local parent networks, like Mamapedia.

Don’t get overwhelmed. Just write it all down. Nettelhorst suffered from both physical and perceptual problems. The physical issues—such as a dreary interior and an empty library—seemed relatively easy to fix. We knew that a fresh coat of colorful paint would go a long, long way. Surely we could finagle books and supplies. But, changing our neighborhoods’ deeply entrenched negative perception of the school would be an uphill battle: everything, from public relations to marketing, needed to be tackled concurrently.

Regardless of your school’s current state, the important thing is to make a game plan, and start running the ball.

Organizing 101

The talent around most neighborhood sandboxes is staggering. Given today’s social networking tools, organizing moms is easier than ever before.

• Formulate an attack plan and set an ambitious timetable. We figured that the school needed to be ready for a neighborhood Open House in just seven months. Consequently, we needed to get cracking a full year before any neighborhood children might arrive.
• Ask your friends to captain or co-chair a team that mirrors their education and work experience. Our group had infrastructure, curriculum, enrichment, special events, public relations, marketing, and fundraising teams.
• You don’t need crowded meetings; you need meetings crowded with heavy-lifters.
• Brand your movement. We called ourselves the Nettelhorst Parents’ Co-op, and adopted the motto: “We do more during naptime than most people do all day.”
• Start social networking like maniacs. Make a cause page on Facebook. Tweet, tweet, tweet.
• Fuel the buzz cool postcards (www.m13graphics.com; $200 for 5,000 cards). Find a graphic designer to take you on pro bono.
• Pack your teams- anyone who shows even the slightest interest in helping. Inflated numbers will be essential political currency.
• Get parents’ telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and their kid’s names/birthdates. We found the most difficult part of organizing park parents was that we had crayons, sidewalk chalk, and wipes, but no one ever had a pen.

So, after you’ve won over your principal with your gracious charm, and your can-do spirit, gather a rag-tag group of energetic mommy reformers, and buckle up. Fixing Nettelhorst wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops, but our journey together has been an amazing ride. The effect of so many creative minds coming together translated into a school that became much more than the sum of its parts—it became pure magic. See for yourself on this Youtube video and please ask any questions you have in the Comments below.

A great public school is well within your control. All things are possible. Carpe Diem.

"Never doubt that a group of small thoughtful citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

Editor’s Note This is a followup article to Jacqueline’s introductory piece. Her book, How to Walk to School, can be purchased at the Mamapedia Store on Amazon.com, or you may be selected to receive one of the free copies that Jacqueline has offered! Just ask your question or add your comments below!