The Florida School Choice Parent Resource Center’s Second Annual Parent Liaison Retreat
Article Submitted by: Dr. Jayne Caudill & Katy Best Twist-Harty
On September 21, 22 and 23, 2009, The Florida School Choice Parent Resource Center had its official second retreat for the second funding cycle of Florida’s Voluntary Public School Choice Program.
This annual retreat took place at the Nova Southeastern University North Miami Beach Campus. The theme was “There’s No Stopping Us Now: We’re On The Move” and remained a motivational centerpiece throughout the conference as a theme song similar to the popular 1979 disco R&B song from McFadden & Whitehead “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.” This theme reflects the continued efforts of The Florida School Choice Parent Resource Center to reach “hard-to-reach” parents and how we are constantly improving our methods to exceed our goal in educating parents on Florida School Choice options.
The retreat was planned and organized by the regional coordinators for the Florida School Choice Parent Resource Centers: Ofelia Hampton in the North Region, Venches Papillon in the Central Region, and headed by the Professional Development Coordinator for the National Institute for Educational Options and acting South Regional Coordinator, Dr. Jayne Caudill.
The retreat started with a professional presentation and the leading of participants in the “Pledge of Allegiance” from the Miami Central Senior High School Color Guard lead by Major Charles Council. Dr. Judith Stein, Principal Investigator of the cooperative agreement with Florida Department of Education and Nova Southeastern University’s Florida School Choice Parent Resource Center Program, gave a moving welcome and introduction on how what we do in educating parents on school choice options and empowering them to make choices and parental involvement is imperative. She also mentioned the importance of our partnerships with the district and community organizations and how she will always expect our liaisons and centers to go above and beyond our grant project objectives in serving Florida parents. Although we serve all Florida parents and will never turn a parent away, our target are those parents that have children that attend schools on Florida’s Differentiated Accountability list as “Intervene” and “Correct II.”
The Keynote Speaker was Ms. Priscilla Adams-Dobbs, Director of Student Interns and Motivational Speakers at Florida Memorial University who spoke about empowering parents to take action and to be involved in their children educational process. She also spoke on the importance of gaining the parents trust and helping them navigate the school system.
Presentations from staff to assist in record keeping included “Understanding the Grant,” “Introduction of the Audit Box/Filing System” for accountability, “Explanation of Forms” utilized for accountability, “Timelines and Expectations” of the grant and parent resource Centers, and “Electronic School Choice Accountability Noting Student Success” (ESCANSS) database and how to effectively utilize it.
Presentations from the community and districts also took place to strengthen partnerships and assist all parent resource centers on replicating various promising practices in their respective areas. Dr. Lucille E. Collins, Executive Director of Title I Administration at Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Mr. Ramon Sanchez, Educational Specialist for the Neighborhood Resource Center South gave a presentation on “Networking with the Title I Neighborhood Resource Center.” Ms. Linda Howard, Parent Involvement Specialist for Title I, Migrant and Special Programs at Broward County Public Schools presented on “Networking with Title I.” Ms. Lois Lee, District Director of Schools of Choice and Parental Options and Ms. Gloria Simmons, Support Specialist for Miami-Dade County Public Schools presented on “Partnering and Update on School Choice.” Ms. Anne Thompson, Director of the Office of Parental Involvement and The Parent Academy at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools presented on “District Perspective on Positive Partnerships with Schools.
A special train-the-trainer “take-away” workshop was presented by Ms. Luz Izquierdo, Parent Specialist at Miami-Dade County Public Schools called “Design a Customer Painted Tee Shirt.” This training gave the liaisons an additional skill to work with parents on parental involvement. The Voluntary Public School Choice Program Manager, Ms. Yolanda Miranda Hill from the Florida Department of Education, presented to grant staff and partners on professionalism and how we are becoming well known in Florida as well as her expectations for all our centers and for the local School Choice Parent Advisory Councils. Parent Liaisons Ms. Lillie Caldwel, Mr. Higor Moreau and Ms. Maria Rivero also had a session on tips from parent liaisons on what works for them in their respective areas in reaching those hard-to-reach target parents, obtaining statistical and working with the community. Mr. Ramon Sanchez and Ms. Elizabeth Tejeda closed the three day sessions with a presentation on “How to Involve CHESS program/involving parents.”
Daily break-out networking groups and breaks gave parent liaisons from all across Florida the opportunity to share on “what works”, “what does not work” and “ways to improve” their practices. Nigel Whyte, Assistant Director of the National Institute of Educational Options reviewed with participants the Organizational and Functional Charts of the Florida School Choice Resource Center. The closing of the retreat took place through a walking tour of the North Miami Beach Parent Resource Center and a bus tour of featured Parent Resource Centers “Sant La Parent Resource Center,” “All Aboard Parent Resource Center,” and “Resource Room Parent Resource Center” giving all parent liaisons an opportunity to see and learn from four different types of centers and how they are run.
The first retreat was the week of the 2008 Florida Public School Choice Consortium’s Annual Conference in Orlando this past November. The Parent Liaisons also had the opportunity to go to Tallahassee in April 2009 to hear presentations from various school choice offices at the Florida Department of Education to bring this vital school choice information back to parents in their respective districts. The next retreat is planned in conjunction with the 2009 Florida Public School Choice Consortium Conference November 18th to November 20th, 2009. See you there!
