School District Striving to Learn Customer Service

The old, empty guard booth will be torn out of the lobby of the Pasadena school district’s headquarters soon, replaced by comfortable sofas and a desk with a sign that reads “Welcome to Pasadena Unified.”

A staffer or volunteer with a name tag will be at the ready, directing parents in English, Spanish or Armenian to the office they need.

Supt. Vera Vignes wants the information center to send a message: From now on parents will be treated with the same courtesy that businesses treat their valued customers.

“Better communication with parents is the first step to improving our schools,” she said.

“It’s really a simple change. Instead of the ‘What do you want,’ it’s ‘Can I help’ ” said George Padilla, a Board of Education member.

Better communication with parents is one of the top goals set out in the district’s new five-year plan to reinvent Pasadena’s schools. The school district also is seeking to improve safety on campus, upgrade instructional programs, funnel more resources to schools and increase sensitivity and accountability to the multicultural student body and parents.

The 22,000-student school district is strapped for cash and ranks near the bottom among valley districts in test scores.

Last week, 1,600 people from three cities in the district--Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre--packed Pasadena High School’s auditorium to hear the district’s plan for change.

Priorities were identified by 2,300 people who attended two previous districtwide meetings. The goals then were refined by seven citizen groups. The end result was a 25-page document, “New Directions: A Blueprint for Action,” that was presented at the meeting last week.

Vignes said she hopes more parents will get involved now that the priorities have been set. The district wants to involve parents in new school leadership teams, which include teachers and administrators, at each campus. The teams will set standards for student performance, make decisions on spending priorities such as building repairs, and raise money from the community for books and school programs.

The district plans to establish a special center where volunteers can offer their services and be trained as classroom assistants, hallway monitors and other aides.

This month the district will send every parent a book of discipline rules and will also provide transportation to back-to-school nights, when parents are invited to walk through their child’s classes and meet teachers. Parent-teacher conferences are also planned for weekends.

Meanwhile, local business owners have agreed to help train staff to treat parents like customers. Already some staff have undergone training provided by local hoteliers, and Avery-Dennison, the Pasadena-based stationery company, has offered to donate name tags for every employee, school officials said.

Nancy Lain, a Wilson Middle School parent, said she already notices a friendlier staff attitude.

“They listen to your concerns and they care about trying to instill discipline,” she said.

Tim Price, president of the Pasadena High School PTA, said he has seen the way the parent-friendly approach works in private schools and believes it can make a difference at virtually no cost.

“Teachers are conveying to parents they are actually wanted when they come to the school,” said Price, whose son, Charlie, is a junior at Pasadena High.

The district is also striving to make its campuses safer. Staff are being trained to resolve conflicts peacefully, and the number of campus entrances are being reduced and hallway monitors increased. The chances of a class disruption will be cut by lowering the student-to-adult ratio by bringing more volunteers into the classroom. The school district also is considering fining parents for vandalism by their child.

In instruction, the district has set five goals for students. Each student should be capable of solving problems in all fields and graduate with a marketable skill. They should be able to work well in a group, be able to set their own goals and contribute to helping others. The standards to measure these will be decided at each school.