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Schools

Area Parents offer 3 Ways to Help Our Local Schools Excel

Parents from P.S. 9 and Community Roots Charter School discuss how parents can make good schools great.

You want to help out at your child's school, but you’re not sure what to do or when you’ll have time to do it.  To help, we found some parents who’ve got it figured out.

“It really has nothing to do with the time you have,” says Penelope Mahot, a parent at P.S. 9 and co-president of the school’s PTO.  “It has to do with allocating it and wanting to do it.”

is an up-and-coming public school in Prospect Heights with a diverse student body.  Community Roots Charter School is a charter in nearby Fort Greene that has a large number of Prospect Heights students.  Founded in 2006, its test scores are already some of the highest in the district.  Both schools depend on parents to raise money, organize events and assist teachers.

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Here are 3 ways you can help your local school thrive:

1. Plug Budget Holes

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With budget cuts coming, chances are your child’s school could use your help raising money for classroom supplies or field trips, instruments or enrichment programs.

“Every year there are more budget cuts,” said P.S. 9’s Penelope Mahot.  To help fill the school’s budget gaps, the PTO raised around $20,000 last year through a silent auction, , movie nights and catalogue sales.  Some of the funds went towards a field trip to the Guggenheim, violins for music class and a refrigerator and stove for a culinary arts course.

Even if you can’t donate money to your child’s school, there are other ways to give.  For Community Roots’ Fall Fling fundraiser, a parent disc jockey took care of the music, free of charge.  Another parent raffled off a weeklong retreat at her cabin in Italy.  And a P.S. 9 parent who runs a party boat company donated one of his yachts for a night of fundraising.

Parents at both schools have done more than raise money for projects, they’ve brought them to life all on their own.  A group of Community Roots parents helped convert a patch of weathered pavement behind the school into a flourishing garden.  Some P.S. 9 parents helped design a new playground for the school, while another parent who’s an architect drew up the plans for the school’s new library. 

In a school system where funding is tied to enrollment, recruitment is critical.  That’s why one P.S. 9 parent created a website for the school.  Another, Paul Ewen, who owns a video production company, is producing a promotional video for the school.

“Parents see this involvement,” Ewen said, “and it’s a reason to send their kids here.”

Sandra D’Avilar, the school’s popular principal, agrees:  “There’s nothing better than a personal reference.”

 

2. Adopt a Classroom

Decades of research have shown that when parents are involved at school, students’ grades, attendance rates and social skills all improve.  Find a way to share your expertise – be it money smarts, a flair for acting or a special love of a foreign country – with your child’s classmates.  

Many P.S. 9 and Community Roots parents linger in their children’s classrooms in the morning to read with students.  Others become classroom parents who find chaperons for field trips and round up supplies for teachers.  Some P.S. 9 parents have taken part in the city’s Learning Leaders program, which trains parents and other volunteers to tutor students and assist classroom teachers. 

For a few weeks every spring, Community Roots parents become teachers.  On Wednesday afternoons for about six weeks, parents come into the school and teach mini-courses on topics such as knitting, cooking, dancing and even piñata-making.  At P.S. 9, parents assist with weekly enrichment classes on jazz, photography, acting, chess and yoga.

Parent groups at both schools help run and subsidize daily afterschool programs.

“I can’t contribute out of my pocket,” said Nelly Heredia, a P.S. 9 parent and PTO co-president.  “So I said, ‘Let me join the PTO and help the school grow.’”

 

3. Make Your School Parent-Friendly

Your kid’s school needs you – it just might not know it yet.  Don’t wait for an invitation: if the school offers few ways for parents to get involved, work with other parents to create your own.

Sahba Rohani, the community development coordinator at Community Roots, said that after she organized a weekly meeting for parents to share cooking tips, others started their own adult singing group and breakfast club.

“They know how to connect,” Rohani said.  “You just have to make that initial platform.”

Another crew of Community Roots parents developed a play date program that fosters friendships and limits cliques.  Through the program, parents organize afterschool outings, including trips to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.  Parents at P.S. 9 and Community Roots both helped set up school computer labs for families.

“We don’t just have 300 children at our school,” said Rohani from Community Roots.  “We have 300 families.”            

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