Proud to Be a PLAINFIELDER!!!

It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to make such a declaration!

Last night’s candidates’ forum sponsored by Plainfield’s LWV was very well attended, in fact as one candidate remarked --it had the most attendees of all the forums held!

Now, on to the discussion that ensued – although I cannot begin to offer you the candidate’s verbatim responses, or lack of response specific to the question – I’ll instead give you my take on the caliber of responses specific to the (3) questions I submitted and were asked last night.

For today we will deal with Question Numero Uno (My FAVORITE Topic!)

Can you tell me if the Plainfield Public School District has a Parental Involvement Policy? And if so – tell me (3) key areas covered in the policy that speak to parental engagement. And if not -- do YOU think there should be one and would you be willing to support and/or push this initiative forward?

Most of the candidates agreed that Plainfield SHOULD have a parental involvement policy. A few remarked that in addition to the need for such a policy, the process should also include parental/ community stakeholder's involvement in the development phase of the policy, and a few others even suggested that PEP not only has but should continue to charter the efforts to draft such a policy.

None said emphatically that a current parental involvement policy exists, and so none offered any key areas of the policy that actually promotes/encourages parental involvement.

Some candidates interpreted the Parental Involvement Policy as a mandate and insisted that parents cannot and should not be forced to participate based on anyone’s precepts of what involvement entails. I wanted to jump up and clarify/testify, but of course personal outbursts were discouraged at the onset of the forum with the said penalty being ejection, and as outspoken as I am -- I am not into making scenes – only a DIFFERENCE!

So -- I will take this opportunity to clarify what a POLICY is and does. A policy provides persons of interest with a construct for engagement/dialog/interaction. It does not demand – but rather provides a roadmap, rules of engagement if you will for effective relationship building and partnering. It eliminates the affects of preferential treatment, groupthink, who knows and who likes whom. Parents can be assured that there is a level playing field from school to school no matter who is in charge and can get involved based on the policy guidance document and their level of interests.

The overall feeling I got from what was shared by the candidates last night is that EACH and EVERY ONE of them believes that PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT is KEY to a SUCCESSFULLY run School district! And at the end of the day – that’s what matters to the parent of child in the Plainfield Public schools, as well as the President of a citywide Parent Group – whose ONLY focus is to Empower Parents to ADVOCATE effectively for their children and their education.

Be Well – My Plainfielders!