July-August 2005

Community School Alliance tackles district

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.  – Parents are ready to step up and make a difference in their child’s school, if only the district will let them.

The Community School Alliance (CSA) of Grand Rapids scored a big victory earlier this year with the Grand Rapids Public Schools adoption of the parent-written and parent-controlled “Community Engagement Model,” an innovative new program that calls for organized parent groups in all 54 K-8 schools in the district. Parents won the power to take over pressing issues at schools, including the expenditure of Title I funds and power to hold principals and teachers accountable for children’s success. 

The program however, it is already teetering on the edge of collapse. Why? 

Thom Bell, CSA member, parent leader, and co-author of the model explained: “This model is really about culture change; shifting the dynamic of the district from a bureaucratically-controlled one to a parent-based one that operates out of individual schools instead of a central office. The district, however, is afraid of change, and is stifling parent involvement through their micro-managing and refusal to support parent needs.”

The district has refused to deal with parents on an individual school level, instead opting to apply a cookie-cutter approach that fails to address parent concerns. The district assigns tasks to parents instead of letting them explore their own self-interest.  CSA is pushing back. The group has organized Parent Action Leaders to form a citywide committee where the leaders support one another as they organize parents in schools. The citywide body  demanded that the district maintain its commitment to keep the program parent-driven. The district  responded with a laundry list of things it wants the parent leaders “to accomplish,” threatening to turn them into another wing of their bureaucracy. The parent leaders, or PALs, led by CSA leaders Charesse Williams and Danielle Key, summarily rejected the district’s intrusion into their committee. Leaders swarmed a district planning meeting, outnumbering  bureaucrats. They demanded that the district let PALs control their own activities  to engage parents. To further support these parent organizers, CSA partnered with the Michigan Organizing Project to hold a public meeting July 7, where Superintendent Bert Bleke acquiesced to CSA demands. “This is about parent rights,” said Charesse Williams. “The parent engagement program will work only because parents make sure it works.”