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Taking 'involved' to the extreme

Schools want parents to give their time, money and yes, opinions, but remember: Remain allies. Don't teach your children unintended lessons.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published May 7, 2006

CARROLLWOOD - Admit it. At some point in your child's school career, you've become disillusioned, angry or worse, and decided to act.

But have you ever gotten to the point where the school system deemed you a negative influence?

A group at Carrollwood Elementary School is in that boat. After waging a fairly public and ultimately successful campaign to oust the school's principal, these parents now hope time will heal the wounds that their effort tore wide open.

The Hillsborough County School District, in an investigative report, has identified this group of parents as "counterproductive to the school climate, operations and efforts of the school."

Carrollwood Elementary parents, even those who led the charge to unseat the principal, declined to discuss the matter last week with the Times. While extreme in its outcome, the situation at Carrollwood is not the only case of parents advocating for what they thought to be in their children's best interest. Neither were their complaints entirely unfounded: In removing principal Jan King, the School District found a long list of areas in which the school was under par.

So what is a parent to do when a school is in crisis? When is parent involvement, something schools beg for from a child's first day of kindergarten, too much?

Rifts between parents and schools are probably inevitable, given the strong feelings parents have about their children and the roles that schools have come to expect parents to play.

School leaders readily admit that operations suffer when parents don't spend time volunteering and raising money to pay for things taxes can't cover. And parents know it.

"You need parent support in there," says Sue Vidmar, who has held several volunteer leadership positions in Westchase-area schools. "As a teacher and as a school, you're limited in some of the things you can really do. The schools need parents."

Parents should stay in touch with their children's teachers, advocate on their children's behalf and stay abreast of their school's philosophy and operations. When parents show an interest in education, children get the message that their time in the classroom is well-spent.

"We always encourage and emphasize to parents that the most effective way to help your child in school is to be involved and to partner with your school," says Nancy Cox, Florida PTA president and a Seminole County elementary school teacher.

When parents get inside the school and see the daily operations, they may feel empowered. Some PTAs have thousands of dollars to spend for equipment and materials. School advisory councils help write school improvement plans.

Sometimes, parents see fit to challenge the people charged with running the campus. And sometimes the action is extreme.

There's the Carrollwood situation, where King and assistant principal Jamie Whitlow were unceremoniously yanked from their jobs, and scenarios similar to it. Parents at Jane S. Roberts K-8 Center in Miami petitioned their school board to remove their principal in 2003, accusing the principal of being unresponsive. Lake County's superintendent removed the principal of Rimes Elementary in Leesburg in 2002 amid parent and teacher complaints that the school had declined academically.

Then there are the smaller revolts. A group of Westchase Elementary parents pushed for mold investigations over the denial of problems by their principal. A collection of Floyd Elementary parents in Hernando County caused an uproar when their new principal changed afternoon pickup procedures.

"You certainly do see that sometimes you'll get a faction that will get dissatisfied because of decisions you had to make, or they'll have an agenda different from the school administration," says Karen Bass, who has been a principal in eastern and western Hillsborough County. "I do think it's the norm."

But there comes a point where parents can cross the line.

Educators describe helicopter parents, who hover and pounce at the slightest sign of trouble. There are homework helpers, who can't let their children learn from doing something wrong.

At Carrollwood, at least according to a 16-member evaluation team, some parents became enablers for an assistant principal who appeared intent on discrediting and then replacing her boss.

The dispute appears related to a vehicle intended to promote parent involvement: the School Advisory Council.

Several years ago at Carrollwood, members of the council disagreed with the principal on how to spend incentive money the school earned for its good FCAT scores.

When the principal sided with the teachers instead of with the council parents, camps formed. By some accounts, the parents never forgave King and counted her treatment of the advisory council as one of her many shortcomings.

Using information obtained from the assistant principal, accusations about money, mismanagement and more, some of those parents helped create an atmosphere that led some families and teachers to flee, the team's report states.

The student population dropped from 768 in 2001-02, King's first year, to 605 this year. During that same period, 29 teachers left the staff, which has ranged in size from 44 to 56. Parent volunteer hours and financial contributions also dropped off.

Few challenge the parents' right to raise concerns.

"If I felt my child's education was being disrupted on a daily basis, would I say something? Definitely," Vidmar says. "They're responsible to the public for what they're doing. If the public thinks they're not doing a good job, then it has to be looked at."

Indeed, in evaluating Carrollwood, superintendent MaryEllen Elia's review team found many problems. It discovered a principal and assistant principal at odds, unable to collaborate. As a result, the administration did not follow established goals, ensure that teachers had current lesson plans or guarantee counseling for children who needed it.

It found construction problems that went unaddressed and a lack of Internet access that went unanswered. It discovered a master class schedule that did not show the school was spending enough time on subjects such as reading.

In pursuing such matters, though, many agree that parents have a right way and a wrong way to go.

With tensions mounting, King held a community meeting in late March. She attempted to answer questions the parents raised. Shortly afterward, a parent anonymously distributed an eight-page response, offering each question, a summary of King's answer, and "the truth."

Such an action could be considered subversion rather than collaboration.

"What you're doing is teaching your child the wrong," says Lisa Kamps-Duac, who serves on the Gaither High PTSA. "It teaches that you can manipulate and get what you want through bullying."

The best relationship is one that strikes a balance between parents and school leaders.

If parents raise issues, "it's really something that you try to work out, because your parents are so important to your school," says Bass, currently principal at Bryant Elementary in northwest Hillsborough.

"You have to be working partners," agrees Cox of the Florida PTA. "It takes a cooperative effort in order for us to actually function."

[Last modified May 7, 2006, 22:34:02]