More than 150 parents, community members and school employees assembled in the Teaneck High School student center on June 3 for the school system’s first "School Progress" meeting, at which the public was invited to provide feedback on the district’s strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of the three-hour meeting was to gather community input to guide the district in future decision-making, said Superintendent John Czeterko.
Following a keynote address by Dr. Pedro Noguera, a professor at New York University and well-known authority on urban education, the community divided into nine breakout groups, one for each board of education member, at which each group identified three areas that the district was doing well and three where improvement was needed.
Noguera, who had been a consultant to the district since 2006, spoke about the qualities that make up a successful district that produces high achieving students.
Noting that neither of his parents had graduated from high school, Noguera emphasized the importance of a parental support to in a child’s academic success. Children whose parents had not attended college were at a disadvantage in such areas as parental help with homework, he said.
Noguera also noted the importance of monitoring data collected on students when making decisions about their education.
BOE President Dr. Henry Pruitt said that the district would analyze the results of the breakout groups over the summer. In addition to the consensus from each group, suggestions from individual participants would also be considered.
Preliminary oral reports from each group indicated the parents were generally satisfied with the district’s staff and programs but were concerned about communications, Pruitt said. Parents also felt that transitions between elementary school and middle school and middle school and high school could be improved.
"Depending on what group you were in, some were happy with the community outreach and some unhappy. We are going to put that together and analyze from all nine groups," he said.
Diane Berger, whose daughter attends third grade at Hawthorne School and whose son is in the sixth grade at the charter school, praised the district for reaching out to the community.
"The group that I was in provided very good input. People opened up. It was a wonderful turnout of parents," she said. "Only time will tell if they take the feedback and act on it," Berger added.
She noted that areas that some residents perceived as strengths, others saw as weaknesses.
"Some said we have a strong teaching staff and others said that the teachers need more. We had a mixed bag," Berger said.
But most residents agreed that the district needs to improve communications on multiple levels. Berger noted that parents generally do not find out that their child is in academic trouble until a parent-teacher meeting in the spring.
"By then it is too late," she said.
Yasmeen Al – Shehab, whose son is in the first grade and whose daughter will begin kindergarten in the fall, said that she was happy with the large turnout.
"The breakout groups were very good and helped me to see a different perspective," she said. "Discussion is always good. One of our biggest problems is that we don’t have a lot of parental involvement. When people are communicating, it means that things are working out."
