Salmon Bay Wisdom Council 3

April 28th & 29th, 2006

Statements

 

We like the child-centered approach here at Salmon Bay. We would like to support and foster the continued growth of that approach here at the school.

 

We are aware there are external pressures that threaten this approach, such as the WASL, and we appreciate the effort teachers and administrators are making to maintain the “alternative” in our alternative school.

 

We wonder if it would be simpler to not have snacks after 3rd grade?

 

Communication

Communication is about having all the parts of our community work in partnership to support the child-centered approach.  Increased communication can only strengthen our community bond and support the common goals we have for our children’s education.

 

We are asking for increased communication, while recognizing that it needs to be efficient and effective so as not to create additional burden on those who are doing the communicating. Part of our discussion has been on facilitating the flow of communication between parents and:

 

-          The School

-          The Classroom

-          FOSBE

 

The School

In order to better enable parents to support the efforts of teachers and administrators, it would be helpful for parents to understand how decisions are made that affect the education of our children. For example,

 

-          Classroom placements: send a letter home a month before decision is made explaining what will happen and what input parents can have, by when they need to provide input, and a timeline for the decision

-          Decision-making matrix: What’s the origin and background on this document? We’d like this made more widely available to people, such as putting it in the parent manual and having it available online; can this document be altered at the school level?

-          Health and safety concerns for our children: the Administration has the responsibility for implementing policies related to children with health and safety concerns and communicating those policies to after-hour event organizers and the volunteer coordinator

-          Professional development days: providing updates on relevant topics of discussion that come up on these days

 

We want to understand the general philosophy of the school and how it is being implemented by teachers and administrators. We want to help foster and continue this philosophy.

 

The Classroom

We are sensitive to the demands on teachers and appreciate the amount of time and energy they put into the school. We would like to understand what they need and how we can support them. We propose:

 

-          Providing an opportunity for teachers to participate in financial decision-making at the FOSBE level

-          A way to solicit teacher input into how we can best meet their needs and support them

 

It is important to diversify volunteer opportunities within the classroom to involve those with varying schedules, such as one-time and evening opportunities, so that all parents can feel connected to what’s happening at school.

 

Setting up a mechanism so that teachers can easily request help and parents can easily partner to meet those requests, such as:

 

-          A teacher “Wish List” for needs that aren’t already met on an ongoing basis that is published to parents like a giving tree where parents can pick something off the list that meets their schedule.

-          Teachers asking parents who want to volunteer when they’re available, then publishing a schedule with assignments based on parent availability

-          A parent volunteer to handle a parent email list for the dissemination of volunteer needs, “Wish List” opportunities, etc. as adjunct to the weekly note coming from the classroom

 

FOSBE

We appreciate the effort that those who participate in FOSBE make. The work that FOSBE does is essential to our school. The decision-making process related to priorities of funding and how parent-raised funds will be spent needs to be clear and accessible to the whole parent community. Parents need to be better informed about how important decisions are made at the parent level and how they can participate in decision-making that affects our children.

 

-          We need a process for prioritizing goals for the year and how money will be spent, some parts of this process might be:

o        A well-publicized community meeting where priorities are discussed, ideas are presented and prioritized, and questions can be asked

o        Email/kid mail voting based on outcomes of the community meeting

o        Then, the financial priorities for the next year should be based on the results of these votes

-          In order to increase involvement and communication we suggest:

o        1 or more representatives from each classroom attend FOSBE meetings and report to other parents in their class regarding current issues, decisions being made, and volunteer opportunities

o        Diversifying volunteer opportunities – more one-time and evening opportunities

-          Educating parents about what FOSBE is and how decisions are made

 

Addressing the Needs of Students with Disabilities

We are impressed by the awareness of the children at Salmon Bay about their peers with special needs. We are grateful for the efforts of those who have raised these issues and made institutional changes that make Salmon Bay a good place for children with special needs.

 

We want to make sure that all events are accessible to all members of the community in a safe way. To this end we propose:

 

-          Setting guidelines for all current student’s disabilities and ways to accommodate them at events

-          Making these guidelines as detailed as possible to simplify preparation for events

-          Procedures and policies during the day be extended to all school events in the evening