Schools

Teachers come to community

By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE, Times Correspondent
Published September 27, 2007

Jessica Garner-Brown, left, talks to Connie Downs, a kindergarten teacher at Brooksville Elementary, while Garner-Brown's son Samuel Garner looks on at the Hillside Estates Community Center.
	[Keri Wiginton | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Keri Wiginton | Times] Reuneisha Williams holds a hula hoop while Demetri Thornton and Deandre Goodson jump rope with Cathy Ferraro, right, a fourth grade teacher at Brooksville Elementary, outside of the Hillside Estates Community Center. Brooksville Elementary and Parrot Middle School teachers met with parents to to discuss free tutoring lessons and to answer any questions.

BROOKSVILLE - When Bus 28 pulled away from Brooksville Elementary School the second time Wednesday, it was not filled with children. Wednesday was an early dismissal day, and the children were long gone by 2 p.m.

The bus instead carried teachers to Hillside, a neighborhood where many of the school's children live. If parents couldn't make it to the school, then the school would come to the parents.

The idea was "to provide an opportunity to meet with the parents," Brooksville Elementary principal Mary LeDoux said. "Some parents might not be able to get to the school. It's a comfortable setting to talk about kids' progress."

The teachers and parents met in the community building, while on the grounds outside, children jumped rope and played games. Drinks and cookies were available inside, where teachers and parents met at tables and chatted about the children.

This was the fourth time teachers had gone to Hillside, but this year was different. When children leave Brooksville Elementary School, they often move on to D.S. Parrott Middle School. This year, Parrott's faculty was invited to join the Bus 28 Outreach.

Middle school children waved and caught up with elementary teachers, and parents had the chance to meet with teachers from both schools.

Lois Kellogg is one of those parents. Her son Jason is a third-grader at Brooksville. She has second-grade twins, Meghan and Hannah, and daughter Sarah is in the seventh grade at Parrott Middle.

"I think it's cool," Kellogg said about the outing. "When you do parent/teacher conferences, you only meet one teacher."

Here, she said, she could get to know all the teachers.

Another parent, Janet Williams, has second-grader Ja-Nashia Hopkins, 8, at Brooksville Elementary.

"I like to meet her teachers," she said. "I like it when they come out here. Some parents don't have transportation."

Parrott Middle School principal Lechelle Booker was delighted that her school was part of the outreach this year. "It's a great opportunity to come out and meet the families," she said. "You always talk about bridging that gap. This is how you do it."

Parent Faith Jackson has children in both schools, first-grader J-mareah and sixth-grader Jeremiah.

"The kids are really enjoying it," he said, "and it lets the kids know the teachers really care. I think it helps the children open up more and trust."

Brooksville Elementary parent educator Amy Anderson is the organizer of Bus 28 Outreach.

"I'm blown away," she said of this year's participation. "We've always had a good turnout. This is a great turnout.

"The community helped promote it. Building community, that's what it's all about."

Sonya Jackson, executive director of school services and accountability, agreed with Anderson. "Wonderful, wonderful turnout," she said.

Dell Barnes is a Brooksville Elementary paraprofessional in technology and physical education. Taking the teachers to Hillside gets "the teachers into the area where the kids live, and it draws the world of education into their surroundings," he said.

Third-grader Whitney Harndon, 8, said she likes the outreach program "because I enjoy seeing my teachers, because we only had a half day and I didn't get to see them that long."

Fourth-grader Alexus Lucas, 10, said she likes it when the teachers come to visit, "because I get to see all my teachers and hang out more instead of just having to read and write and do math."

Paulette Lash Ritchie can be reached at eduritchie@yahoo.com

[Last modified September 26, 2007, 22:53:23]