A Forum for Community Issues : La Canada: Healthy donations and a nonprofit foundation mean smaller classes, access to art, music and drama specialists and Macintosh computer labs. Parents also give 56,000 hours a year.
I can’t imagine what this school would be like without the financial, emotional and physical support we get from the parents.
We have just under 700 students at our school, kindergarten through sixth grade. Our student achievement scores are high, perhaps not as high as some other districts, but they’re up there.
In addition to the standard state funding per student, the state also provides us with GATE funds for gifted students, special education funds, school improvement funds, and minimal bilingual education funds for our English as a Second Language students. About 24% of our students are Korean; the rest of the school is predominantly white.
We could not get by on state funding alone. We rely on the support of our PTA and Support Our Schools, (S.O.S.), a nonprofit foundation that raised approximately $400,000 this year. The district divides this money between the three elementary schools, one middle school and our high school, based on a priority list of student program needs.
Our PTA raised more than $46,000 last year and they are hoping to raise about $59,000 this year.
With that money, the PTA supports our “Great Books Program” that involves parent volunteers in teaching our youngsters to think critically about literature.
The PTA also pays for an art specialist who develops projects based on each teacher’s curriculum. After consulting with each teacher in the school, she comes up with projects such as drawing maps or constructing a rain forest, whatever it is that is pertinent to the classroom.
We have a Macintosh lab with 34 computers that the parents support with “scrip.” (Parents buy scrip, a certificate that can only be spent at a specific grocery chain, which donates a percentage of parents’ purchases to the school). Scrip sales pay for our computer facilitator’s weekly salary.
S.O.S. funds our music and drama program. They hire a drama consultant and a music consultant, both of whom spend 12 weeks at each elementary school in the district. S.O.S. also donates money for a supply budget for each school and they pay for an extra teacher at each of the three elementary schools to reduce class size.
This is my third year as principal of this school and, no matter where I’ve been, I believe parental involvement is always important. It gives parents a window that enables them to see what’s going on with their child’s education. It allows them to have a better understanding when their children come home and talk about what’s happening in class.
Our parents are involved in every phase of the school. They’re an integral part of our campus. They do book fairs. We have a campus beautification program. The parents come out on weekends, they plant flowers and trees, they water the plants in the summer to make sure they’ll make it through the heat. Last year they volunteered 56,000 hours of their time.
I think this involvement sends a message to the students that we’re a family, that we all care about the school. They see their parents valuing what is happening at this school on a day-to-day basis. We have a lot of working parents here who volunteer to do whatever they can whenever they can.
Of course, I support public education. I think there needs to always be a partnership between the school, community, its students and parents. We must build on what’s happening at school with what’s happening at home. I have high standards and expectations for my own children and for the children here in La Canada.
All children can learn and we are here to make a difference. Parents, schools, the district and community--we all need to find a key for all these kids. We are always working to improve the school and fine-tune the curriculum. Keeping up with technology is also a big, big deal. I’ve worked in a lot of schools. It makes no difference what the zip code of the school is. It’s about caring and a dedicated staff. You have to love kids, no matter what.
