Sunday is Mother’s Day; a day not too different than all other
days for me. My three children are a source of great joy to me, and
they shower me with love and show their appreciation on a daily
basis.
Sunday is Mother’s Day; a day not too different than all other days for me. My three children are a source of great joy to me, and they shower me with love and show their appreciation on a daily basis. As a “stay-at-home” mom when my children were young, I felt less appreciated by the general public. Society and the media were constantly reminding me of the “luxury” of staying home and raising my children. The price for this “luxury” was that my husband and I shared one minivan for a few years.
Once my children were in elementary school, I became a full-time volunteer at the school. The hours were long, the pay non-existent, but every staff member at Rucker School appreciated the efforts of that core group of parents who worked in the trenches to make sure that all the kids were getting help in the classroom. The parents also provided art classes, exercised with the students, sustained a theater program, supported the music program, chaperoned on field trips, monitored the rooms on rainy days, bought and cataloged books for the school library, funded assemblies and sold enough wrapping paper to wrap the planet.
As my children moved on to middle school, I started working a part-time job, but still found myself needed for fundraising, chaperoning, driving to sporting events, chairing committees and being on-call to help whenever needed. I have been a Brownell parent for four consecutive years and have always felt welcome on campus by the entire staff.
So important is the connection between home and school that the GUSD Board recognized this in adopting Board Policy 1201 which speaks to Parent/Family Involvement. According to our Board Policy, parents are welcome in the schools and their support and assistance are sought. In GUSD, parents are supposed to be full partners in decisions that affect their children. There is no asterisk after this which says “until they get to Gilroy High.”
At Gilroy High School, there was no functioning parent club until last year. The efforts of a group of dedicated parents resulted in a strong and active parent club which has raised thousands of dollars which has been spent on classroom supplies, refreshments for teachers, library books and funding for special programs such as last year’s Special Education Science Fair and Grad Night. The culmination of the efforts of the Gilroy High Parent Club was last week’s wildly successful Career Fair; an event attended by 336 GHS students.
On the Monday before the Career Fair, GHS Principal Bob Bravo emailed staff members seeking volunteers to help guide the students who would be attending the Career Fair to the correct classrooms. In response to this request, math teacher Wayne Scott emailed the GHS staff asking them to reconsider their support for the Parent Club. Apparently, Mr. Scott will no longer be supporting the Parent Club and is now encouraging the staff of Gilroy High School not to support the Parent Club.
Mr. Scott’s “retaliation” against the Parent Club stems from his inability to accept the fact that all of the Parent Club officers were opposed to teacher participation in the Day of Silence. He may also be perturbed at parents in general, given the fact that NO parent has come forward to endorse teacher participation in the Day of Silence. What he failed to inform the GHS staff is that NO parent has come forward to condemn student participation in the Day of Silence.
On no other campus in Gilroy would teachers even consider giving themselves the privilege of “shutting up” for a day, because on no other campus in Gilroy would it be tolerated. I really don’t want to spend any more time on the Day of Silence; everyone except Mr. Scott realizes how far from reality he strayed when he compared his own physical disability to a non-vocally impaired teacher purposefully refraining from speech.
It is my firm belief, through my years of experience in GUSD that parents and Parent Clubs are appreciated by the overwhelming majority of teachers and staff at our schools. I have dozens of thank you notes from Gilroy High teachers that would lead me to believe that Mr. Scott is in the minority of teachers who do not appreciate the GHS Parent Club. For that small group of teachers who will no longer be supporting the Gilroy High Parent Club or accepting our services, I have one simple request. Please email me at lu*****@****ic.com and let me know that you will not accept our services so that the funds raised by parents can be put to good use by teachers for whom Board Policy 1201 does not conflict with their personal policy.
