Schools Find More Dads Helping Out

In addition to working about 45 hours per week, Mike Nunez somehow finds time to assist with school field trips, class projects and committee meetings at his children’s Camarillo elementary school.

Nunez has helped build everything from haunted houses to life science projects and coached sports, from his son’s basketball team to his daughter’s soccer team.

He is also the head chef for tri-tip dinner and barbecue fund-raisers and serves on the steering committee for Los Primeros Structured Elementary School.

“I have fun,” said Nunez, a field representative for Mission Produce, an avocado packinghouse.

“I think you need to put something back in,” said the father of RaeAyn, a kindergartner, and Anthony, a fifth-grader. “It feels special there at Los Primeros because that’s the school my wife and I went to. But I’d volunteer no matter where my kids went to school.”

Until recently, fathers were the hidden parent--they served as the primary breadwinner in two-parent families, but had a limited role in the nonfinancial aspects of their children’s lives.

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Nunez, however, is one of an emerging breed of “involved” fathers.

Although extensive research exists on the importance of parental involvement in their children’s education, relatively few studies have focused on fathers.

One new national study, however, indicates that children whose fathers take an active role in their education are more likely to do well at school.

The project by the Washington-based National Center for Education Statistics surveyed the parents of nearly 17,000 schoolchildren nationwide.

The study concluded that children whose fathers were involved in their education were more likely to get good grades, enjoy school and participate in extracurricular activities. They were also less likely to have to repeat a grade or be suspended or expelled.

Parental participation was determined by asking how many school events they attended. Those who signed up for at least three school happenings annually were identified as “actively involved.”

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The study, however, did not establish a cause-and-effect connection. For example, fathers may be more likely to be involved because their children are doing well, or their children may be doing better because their fathers are involved.

Nonetheless, Ventura County educators and administrators agree that fathers’ involvement in their children’s education can have nothing but positive outcomes.

“It makes a difference in a variety of levels,” Ventura County Supt. Chuck Weis said. “When a father makes time for his child’s schooling, it sends a clear message that school is important and that the kids are important.”

Many fathers in Weis’ Moorpark neighborhood are involved in their children’s education.

When Weis asked how they found the time, many replied that they either had a regularly scheduled weekday off from work or worked out of their homes running a variety of businesses.

“It’s admirable--I’ve devoted my career to working with children and I’ve only been in my own children’s classrooms a few times this year,” he said.

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Joseph Spirito, superintendent for the Ventura Unified School District, sees a similar pattern.

“A lot more fathers are coming to schools now than ever before,” Spirito said. “I have found in our schools that children tend to behave better, take school more seriously and get better grades.”

In the upper grades, Spirito said, children are less likely to get into drugs and more likely to go to college if their parents are involved in their education.

“When I was growing up as a young child--with my parents from Italy and not speaking the language--the last thing they would ever do is come into the classroom,” Spirito said. “But schools are opening their arms to parents these days.”

And Los Primeros is one of those schools that is making it more comfortable for dads to be there.

Just in the last couple of months, a bunch of dads got together to put on a Christmas party with Santa Claus for the kindergarten, to install an irrigation system and planter boxes for the school’s life science projects, and to chaperon a four-day camping trip for fifth-grade boys.

And in addition to Nunez’s assistance, the kindergarten teacher says she has three other dads who come in every Friday to help out with everything from tutoring to hanging up drawings.

“It makes it more like a community with the connection between home and school,” said teacher Susan Piott. “It’s a very positive thing for the student.”

Pam Nunez, a work-at-home mom, also volunteers in the kindergarten class every Friday, in addition to her duties as the school’s disaster preparedness coordinator. She says she’s seen more dads on campus these days as well.

“I think it’s a good role model for the boys as well as the girls,” Pam Nunez said. “It’s good for kids to see that the dads have time to be in their classroom.”

The Nunez family, however, contradicts the National Center for Education Statistics study in two ways.

The study indicated that “fathers in two-parent families have relatively low levels of involvement in their children’s schools” and that “the strongest influence on fathers’ involvement in their children’s schools is mothers’ involvement.”

The Nunez children, however, are accustomed to their father being involved in all of their activities.

“I think they almost take it for granted that dads are supposed to be there in every part of your life,” Pam Nunez said. “I’m hoping that when it’s their turn, they’ll just think that’s the way it’s supposed to be and make time to be there. . . . Mike’s father was that way and I’m sure that’s where he gets it from.”

Although the study claims fathers who live apart from their children are much less likely than fathers in two-parent families to be involved in their children’s school, there are also fathers that contradict this finding.

Mike Hanson gets involved in classroom, fund-raising and construction projects at Lincoln Elementary School in Ventura, where his two daughters attend second and fifth grades.

From teaching photography mini-courses and cooking or washing dishes at fund-raisers to building shelves or assembling playground equipment, Hanson takes time from repairing boats at the Ventura Harbor to be at his girls’ school.

“It’s hard to figure out how to make that time, so I work a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule, which leaves Mondays free,” said Hanson, who has joint custody of his girls. “The people I work with are very open to letting me take off when I need to help out.

“It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me, it’s just something I enjoy doing,” Hanson said.

In addition to volunteering at school, Hanson focuses on the children’s education at home.

Homework is the first priority when they come home, and learning is supplemented through computer programs, he said.

“Without parent participation, the kids really miss out,” Hanson said.

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Hanson and Mike and Pam Nunez are lucky to have flexible work schedules. But parents whose hours are more structured can still be active, teachers, school officials and parents say.

Here are some of their suggestions:

* Simply ask what your child’s teacher needs. It may be a project you can do at home or on the weekends.

* Helping out with fund-raisers may also be done at night or on weekends.

* If your job does not start until 9 a.m. and your child starts school at 8 a.m., see if there is something you can do in the classroom for that one hour.

* If scheduled parent-teacher conferences conflict with your work hours, call the teacher and ask to meet at another time.

* Pitch in when extra hands are needed to build sets for a school play, build planter boxes or install new shelves in a classroom.

* If your work schedule does not allow you to visit the classroom, take your child to the library or a bookstore at night or on weekends.

* Field or art museums also make fun weekend day trips to take with your child.

* Discuss and review your children’s homework.

* Read to your children at home.

The national report, “Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools,” is on the Internet at www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/fathers/

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Hobbs is a correspondent and Nguyen is a Times staff writer.