Monrovia School Link

Monrovia School Link ~ Number 87 ~ July 25, 2004

After Alex Zucco's report to the board (see last couple issues) about her plans for a parents group designed to evaluate and promote the Monrovia schools, I thought I ought to check in with her and see exactly what's cooking. By the way, hope you all are having a pleasant summer!
~ brad@sacklunch.net

Well, the organization Alex has in mind is patterned after a Pasadena group called Pasadena Education Network, or PEN, for short. (You can see my article about PEN - second one down the page - at www.monroviaschoollink.com/archives/2004_04_01_archive.html.) I suggested to Alex that the group might be called MEN (Monrovia Education Network), but for some reason she didn't seem too keen on that idea. Sigh, all my best ideas get shot down.

Anyway, she said the group - whatever it's name may be - could do a couple things. One thing would be evaluation tours of schools. Here's how it might work:

The group would send out an email inviting members on a tour of a Monrovia school campus. Then, anyone who wanted to come could fill out an evaluation form for the school (tweeked from the very comprehensive PEN form) or they could just tag along. Then the principal would give the evaluation forms a look for factual errors [I - Brad - hope the principal would advise but not have veto power over these reports] and then the forms would be posted on line with contact information so parents could look at them and write the author to ask questions.

Another possible task would be for the group to hold an annual forum - maybe in the summer - in which representatives of public and private schools could make presentations and answer questions so parents could learn the advantages and disadvantages of both public and private education.

Alex said she'd like to reach parents at the transition points, just before their children enter first grade, just before they enter middle school, and just before they enter high school. Those, she beleives, are probably the key times when parents are debating whether to send their children to public or private schools.

It all sounds pretty valuable, but wouldn't such tasks be better handled by the PTA or by the Monrovia Schools Foundation?

Alex, who is involved up to her eyebrows in the PTA, said these goals are not part of the PTA's mission, but she does think it might match up well with the Monrovia Schools Foundation. In fact, she said, she is planning to meet with the foundation's board this August to discuss the possibility of having the group be an adjunct to MSF.

But whether it becomes a part of MSF or is a stand-alone organization, it is going to take a little while to get all the pieces put together.

Alex said Superintendent Louise Taylor is positive about the idea and is trying to sell the concept to the principals.

Presuming that goes well, Alex said she'll make flyers to send home to parents informing them of the group, then a press release will go out to some of the local papers, then hopefully she'll schedule a meeting, then the group will need to develop a mission statement and calendar. So, with the distractions of school starting up, time for the principals to mull things over, then November and December busyness, Alex thinks it's realistic to think a group might get up and running by January or so, and might be able to schedule its first major event by next summer.

So, if you're interested in the project, send Alex a note at ak.zucco_at_verizon.net

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