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All families have a right to have access to the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, clothing and the opportunity to enjoy and express their own interests as long as they do not violate the rights of others.

All families have a non-negotiable right to be involved in shaping the policy and content of the educational programs serving their own children.

All families have a right to expect that a democratic society will guard and enhance their right to achieve and exercise their fullest potential.

The educational process should strengthen, not weaken, family relationships.

(c) School Staff.

Employees of the school system are the servants of the people.

Deep down many teachers want their children to learn whether or not they are capable of teaching them.

Professionals are expected to be evaluated on the basis of their performance and their ability to enable parents and students to participate in this process.

An effective principal understands the relationship between teacher attitudes and student achievement; family security and student potential. (d) The School and Its Purpose.

The school exists to serve the educational needs of the community and not those of the central system.

The school is an integral part of the community.

It must be a living laboratory for

learning how to make democracy work on behalf of all of its members as against a place where democracy is imposed as a hollow ideology.

Corporal punishment, school suspensions, excessive failures, track systems, white racist rule, double standards, compensatory education (educational reparations), negative labeling, nonphysical violence and autocratic rule have no place in the production of human beings through the vehicle of education.

Learning Involvement.

Parents need to be helped to get involved. One way to bring about this learning, after they understand their rights and the community's educational philosophy, is to involve them in helping the school staff to relate to the local community. As they do so, they become involved themselves.

The activities listed below are not meant as an exhaustive list, nor do they necessarily apply to every community, Furthermore, it is hoped that involvement on various levels reflects the needs and priorities set by the community school council itself.

(1) Staff Selection and Recruitment: Give priority to local residents in staff recruitment and hiring but not the ultimate priority.

(2) Locale of Meetings, School Events,

etc: Hold committee meetings grade level, executive, etc. in homes or local non-school facilities.

Establish a local non-school cility as a school community social center. Plan weekly breakfasts, social hours, luncheon meetings, etc. Use a storefront, a meeting room in a local church or bar, etc.

Encourage school staff and others to patronize local businesses.

Invite school staff to local social

HANDBOOK AND POLICY GUIDE

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pamphlets, a community bulletin board in the school, through personal contacts, etc.

Abolish teacher room and staff toilets and integrate them into "community toilets. Students need to know that teachers have bowel movements.

Encourage community organizations to "adopt a class", to finance trips to plan community tours and study, to locate employment and to develop "my brother's brother" kinds of relationships and not Big Brother relationships with the students. Encourage such groups to present citations to deserving teachers and students. (3) Corporal Punishment: Abolish corporal punishment and insist that teachers begin to learn how to handle student behavior in the classroom as a part of the educational process. Remember violence begets violence. (4) Suspensions: Prohibit school sus

pensions and develop strategies to enable students to utilize the educational experience productively. Protect the right of students to be themselves and to learn by doing so. (5) Open School: Organize regular class

and school visitations by parents

and feed-back the collective reactions of the parents to the respective school staff.

Keep the school open on weekends and evenings for use by community groups, etc. Weddings, funerals, card parties and political meetings should be held in the school.

The "gate-keeping"

function

should be exercised by community members and not just by the school staff. The community knows who should be allowed into the schools.

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Encourage the school to utilize local residents as guest lecturers, speakers, etc. in the areas of their special experience and knowledge. (6) Accountability: Develop an instrument and a process for enabling students, parents and community leaders to evaluate the school program, the staff and to participate in shaping the educational goals of the school. Monthly reports should be sent home dealing with: Teacher Turnover; Teacher Absences; School Dropouts, if any; School Emergencies; Problems of Vandalism and Theft; Calendar of Special Events: on a classroom level, grade level or school-wide level; Financial Income and Expenditures.

A Parent-controlled Grievance Committee should be established. This committee should be available to parents and staff to elicit problems and concerns.

Encourage teachers to prepare a one-page statement which clearly outlines their goals for the year. Encourage them to hold meetings with parents to ensure a clear understanding of the goals and to elicit parent opinions and reactions. The same discussions should be held with their students.

(7) "Teaching" the Teachers: Teachers

should be required to have their students and their parents teach the teachers about the local community mores, values and customs such as language, behavioral patterns, etc. An "Open Community Mon th❞ should be established during which time all homes have to be visited by teach

ers.

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should be given classroom assignments designed to bring the home and school closer together. Interviews with parents on critical social issues, eliciting of parent attitudes toward school, childhood experiences, etc. should become an integral part of the students learning. (9) Parent-Directed School-Community

Studies: Parents should be enabled and assisted to collect information on community interests, attitudes and aspirations as a way to help the community to relate to the school. (10) Justification and Mediation: Most

issues are not really settled by a vote or by the exercise of power by those in school.

Develop a means for resolving conflict, settling disagreements or breaking log jams by supporting principals, students, teachers and parents only when they are right.

Require all the participants to justify why they acted in certain ways and to listen to reactions to others about their assessments.

Settle disagreements through the use of impartial mediators or by negotiation.

Building Community Understanding.

The process of establishing a community school council, if effective, will

result in building operational unity, in increasing the number of people who are interested and able to participate in identifying weaknesses and strengths of their own program, and in gauging the strength of the opposition.

Concentrate on the process of community-building, and not just the issues. In cases where issues can be consciously selected, the extent to which the issues generate community solidarity becomes a criterion of selection. It is not necessary to attempt to educate the majority: concentrate your attention on the strategic "local influentials" and "opinion makers" - clergy, beauticians, bankers, businessmen, community workers, block leaders, numbers men, doctors, social workers, politicians, youth leaders, organizational representatives, the bench sitters, the people in the laundromat and so forth. Have them play the message back to you in their own words to be sure that they understand you. Then, ask them to speak with specific people, and to put the message on the informal grapevine: When it comes back to you on the grapevine, listen carefully to find out what is being communicated. Ask questions in order to learn more about what is being said.

Other selected techniques are:

Getting to know who knows who, so that one will know the other people each person can talk with freely.

Encouraging the development of buddy-buddy systems wherein the buddies “agree” to keep each other informed.

Dropping in at the social centers beauty parlor, laundromat, etc. - and encouraging people to question you. Focusing on personal contacts, not paper flyers, pamphlets, etc. Developing a list of key telephone

HANDBOOK AND POLICY GUIDE

numbers and getting to know the secretaries of those who have them. Returning telephone calls, keeping promises and showing up when one is needed; the only time it really counts! Helping people to evaluate issues, to explore alternative strategies and to get involved in learning what has to be done.

Encouraging the development of meetings in homes, speaking engagements, student assignment, essay contests, newspaper and TV programs where ideas are discussed, not sold.

Keeping a running record of those who give evidence of a deepening understanding of the issues: getting them invited to meet with others: in churches, civic groups, etc.

Inviting speakers and consultants in from other cities to local forums and workshops. Invite professionals, community interns and parents from other communities.

Focusing activities on organizations: providing them with materials and speakers; inviting them to canvass their neighborhoods; to convene conferences and meetings.

Helping people to get to know you as a person.

Being whomever you think you are and not what others want you to be. Helping people to learn how to keep you honest; to prevent even you from manipulating them.

Helping people begin to feel good about themselves: help them understand and learn from their mistakes, compliment them when they deserve it.

Educating the antagonists; attempting to get them linked to the movement.

Avoiding false promises - or any promises at all.

Remembering the students should be a full part of this effort.

The effectiveness of this effort can be measured in the following ways:

One hears about the issue at formal and informal gatherings.

Individuals and organizations begin to put the issue on their meeting agendas.

The request for materials, speakers and information begins to increase. More local residents begin to explain to you what's going on.

Individuals and organizations begin to subscribe to community control/ decentralization publications.

The rate of school visitations begins to increase; school principals and teachers begin to attend meetings in the community.

Former strangers get to know each other.

Regular meeting attenders begin to bring their friends with them; more strangers begin to attend meetings. Relationships of the Community School Council to Other Systems

The community school council must learn to deal with principals, district superintendents, and the school superintendents. Since the principals will be responsible to or working with the community school council several suggestions are submitted:

1. Involve him fully in the affairs of the council,

2. Meet with him regularly in the school,

3. See that he is invited to community meetings,

4. Ask for regular written reports from

him to be distributed to the parents, 5. Develop a meaningful relationship with him; help him to learn how to advocate on behalf of the students,

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6. Help him to share his professional
problems with you and then try to
help him solve them on a joint
basis,

7. Encourage him to keep the individ-
ual council in his school fully in-
formed, and

8. Establish a network of committees
to enable him to involve parents
and benefit from their inputs: fi-
nancial committee, personnel com-
mittee, program committee and
student relations.

Efforts should be made to convert both
the district and school superintendent
into advocates for the local community,
and to ensure that they keep the local
community informed. Other systems to
which the community school council
should relate are: the state board of
education, U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, mayor's office,
and other local agencies - welfare,
health, Model Cities programs and so
forth. The suggestion here is that two-
way relationships be established on two
levels: (1) written - get on the mailing
lists for news releases and reports, study
the newspapers daily, review calendars
for public hearings, and (2) personal -
establish liaison with a person inside of
each one of these agencies. Use them
as "consultants" by inviting them to in-
terpret agency policies. The same kind
of contact should be maintained with
elected officials.

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