GILROY
– Superintendent Edwin Diaz has called a special April 8 school
board meeting to address hit-and-miss parent involvement within the
Gilroy Unified School District.
GILROY – Superintendent Edwin Diaz has called a special April 8 school board meeting to address hit-and-miss parent involvement within the Gilroy Unified School District.
The study session will be used to look at all district policies related to parental involvement and will review communication practices at every level of the district, Diaz said Tuesday night during an advisory meeting with GUSD parents.
“We need to start a strategic plan,” Diaz said. “Once we identify some actions to take, I’d like to have a joint meeting with this group and school principals.”
Improving communication and increasing involvement with parents and the community at large has been a district priority since 2000.
While some events – such as a freshman information night held at Gilroy High School in December – have drawn standing-room-only crowds, attendance at others have been disappointing. At a recent school board session, Trustee Jaime Rosso said he was disappointed with the slim turnout to the GHS open house this month.
Late last month, Trustee Tom Bundros announced he would ask fellow board members to revamp existing board policy on parental involvement. Bundros called the current plan “outdated” and “too general” then.
The policy is barely a one-page document that says the district is committed to involving parents. It gives few details on how to accomplish that goal.
At Tuesday’s advisory session, staff and parents got a head start on the board. For almost their entire two-hour meeting, parents representing each school site analyzed what communication practices are done now at their respective campuses and what else could be done.
From teachers making parents sign off on student homework assignments to increasing the use of the district’s automatic phone messaging system, certain practices done at a handful of campuses could be made district policy soon.
Juanita Contin, the GUSD’s director of parent involvement, invited parents to attend a Parent and Teacher Association conference in May. Contin said GUSD schools do not necessarily need to form PTA clubs, but sites could benefit from the organization’s framework.
“If we don’t have our policies in place, then things can fall apart,” Contin said.
The special session April 8 will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the district office board room, 7810 Arroyo Circle.
