Parent Engagement
If the LAUSD’s Goal is “Parent Engagement”, What is the Plan of Action?
The LAUSD Board is set to discuss the “Board Meeting Accessibility to the Public” resolution at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday.
Complaints about the many obstacles that the public faces when they attempt to participate in meetings of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board are close to universal. Parents of children enrolled in charter schools and those in District schools all seem to recognize that there is a problem with a system that requires them to line up hours in advance because the Board Room is not large enough to hold the number of people who show up, particularly when there are contentious issues on the agenda. While other local districts hold their meetings in the evening, the LAUSD hold theirs during the school day which means that working parents, students and teachers are usually not able to attend. Since the Board limits the number of people who can speak on a subject, frustrations mount when opposing sides are not given equal opportunity to present their arguments before a vote is taken.
For years, Board members from both sides of the aisle have promised to fix these problems. Former LAUSD President Steve Zimmer…
