By:Jonann Brady
Thedra McCrae, director of pupil personnel for the district, called this year the group's most successful yet, saying, "It's time ... This council will grow."
Dozens of parents participated in the meeting last Thursday evening, and a main focus, once again, was keeping kids -- especially from Malverne -- in the public schools by improving the district's image. And while Channel 12 news was upstairs interviewing students about the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, several parents said that the subject of race cannot be ignored.
"People are afraid to talk about color and their fears. It shouldn't be such a taboo," said parent Liz Zimmerman.
Another parent agreed, but said that white parents did have legitimate concerns if they were to enroll their children in an all-black class. "You have to be careful how you [discuss that] with parents," she said. "They get insulted and think you're calling them racist."
Ed Newsome, a Lakeview parent, said the goal of the council should be to tie together a message and bring it to people in the community. "We need to champion the spirit of the group," said Newsome. "We need to celebrate the fact that we are different."
Before the meeting began, the council created a communications committee, headed by parent Donna Santoro, who works as a public relations director in the Oceanside School District. Twenty-one parents joined the committee, which is broken into four groups: media outreach, parent outreach, event planning and business/community outreach.
The committee's first step, said Santoro, will be to informally poll parents, real estate agencies and other businesses in the district to get a sense of what people think about the schools and where they are getting their information.
Several parents said the most pressing short-term goal of the council should be to get the budget passed. One woman in the audience said, "I'm very nervous about the budget. I heard many people might vote no." Parents said they would talk to their neighbors to get out the yes vote. (The budget will be decided after the Herald goes to press.)
Later in the meeting, a 13-year-old student spoke to the crowd, reminding parents that the council has to always "bring it back to the kids," as McCrae put it. The student talked about the challenges teenagers face, with peer pressure about sexuality, joining gangs and depression. "We need more social workers that kids can trust. We need people to listen to kids," said the student.
Matt Rosen, a social worker at Herber Middle School, agreed, saying that students need more services and a forum in which kids can talk openly. Rosen added, "We also need to celebrate kids like [the student who spoke] who are willing to come up and talk. ... We have to empower our students to empower other students."
To wrap up the meeting, McCrae set four goals for the council to concentrate on next year, including organizing the open forum for students; creating mentoring program to hook younger kids up with older students and match students with business and community leaders; improving communication among the district, parents and the community; and expanding the Parent-to-Parent program, which pairs parents who are new to the district with "veteran" parents.
