School Staff Campaigns to Ease Fears of Parents

Principal Robert Fraisse and his staff at A. E. Wright Middle School are about to complete a marketing campaign that could be the envy of Madison Avenue.

Fraisse had to convince a group of angry Agoura Hills parents that his Calabasas middle school was, in fact, the best place for their children.

The parents were unhappy because the children--about 50 graduates of Sumac Elementary School--were to be bused six miles to Wright instead of attending the crowded Lindero Canyon Middle School in their neighborhood.

Suddenly, Wright’s campus and its curriculum became subject to harsh criticism. Sumac graduates complained at Las Virgenes Board of Education meetings. Some parents threatened to take their children out of the public schools and enroll them in private facilities.

‘Change Is Difficult’

Fraisse realized that changing public opinion would not be easy.

“We have a good school, a good program, a great faculty and a terrific bunch of kids,” Fraisse said. “We also had a group of parents who were being forced into change. Change is difficult for anybody. Our goal was to ease fears, and the best way to do that was just show them Wright.”

What emerged was a plan to sell the school to the skeptics. An informal marketing campaign opened last spring as Wright held its traditional orientation meeting for parents of new pupils. The parents of Sumac students received personal invitations to the affair.

A few weeks later, Fraisse and the Wright guidance staff were hosts at a gathering for the incoming sixth-graders. The festivities included ice cream, games and one-on-one counseling sessions. Once again, Fraisse said, an effort was made to pay special attention to the Sumac students.

Weekly Tours

“We wanted to make sure the Sumac students felt they were going to be a part of the school and that in no way were they any different from any other sixth-grader coming to Wright,” Fraisse said.

The personal touch was used again to promote weekly tours of the campus. The tours, limited to 10 people at a time, gave doubting Sumac parents a chance to talk to the principal, witness classroom activities and ask questions about Wright’s curriculum.

“The tours helped destroy a lot of myths parents had about Wright,” Fraisse said. “I think 99% of the parents walked away at ease with the school.”

The campaign continued throughout the summer. When class schedules were sent to the new Wright sixth-graders, an accompanying letter invited parents and students to visit the campus and learn its layout.

‘Made Us Feel Special’

Wright officials even tried to ease first-day-of-school jitters that students often feel over how to work combination locks on unfamiliar lockers. Locker assignments were handed out during the summer so students could learn how to manipulate locks before the first day of classes.

“Every time we looked up, there was another meeting at Wright or another letter from Wright; it made us feel special,” said Cathy Mooney, whose daughter was one of the Sumac students assigned to the Calabasas school.

“All of the attention made me feel a lot better about the school.”

By the time school opened last week, Fraisse’s plan appeared to have worked. Nearly all the Sumac students assigned to Wright showed up to become part of the about 800-pupil campus.

During a lunchtime stroll of the campus, Albert D. Marley, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, said the Sumac students appeared to be mixing well with the rest of the youngsters from Calabasas and Liberty Canyon.

“These youngsters will be assimilated very quickly into the school,” Marley predicted. “In three weeks, you won’t be able to drag them off the Wright campus.”

Fraisse’s campaign is far from over. During the first few weeks of school, there will be a special assembly to welcome all new sixth-graders.

“When that assembly is over, we hope that all the kids feel they are part of Wright,” Fraisse said. “If they do, then all our hard work will have paid off.”