USD 308 candidates talk parent-teacher communication, concerns
Editor’s note: This is part fourteen of a series on the USD 308 School Board candidate race. For part one, click here. This article will follow all seven candidates in attendance throughout the entire forum, reporting on their comments question by question.
The Hutchinson Tribune hosted a Unified School District (USD) 308 Board of Education and Hutchinson City Council Candidate forum Wednesday at the Stringer Fine Arts Center at Hutchinson Community College.
Seven out of the eleven candidates were present at the forum. Kevin Abbott, Tad Dower, Darcie Canfield-Riggs, Gleysha Mendez-Rosario, Nick Hemphill, Gregory Johnson and Jeff Roberson attended the forum. Candidates Valarie Gibson-Smith and Lance Patterson could not attend due to work commitments, and Shontina Tipton had personal reasons for her absence. Jacki Eckert did not respond to the invitation.
Publisher of The Hutchinson Tribune Michael Glenn moderated the event, and gave each candidate one minute to respond to each question asked at the forum. The forum was recorded and can be watched here for free.
How will you prioritize communicating with parents?
Hemphill began by saying that he would better use parent-teacher conferences to communicate between both sides. As a parent, he has used conferences and believes they could be tailored to what each student needs.
“I really think parent-teacher conferences is a great thing for the communication and kind of seeing where students and everything is,” Hemphill said. “I just think that we could probably utilize that just a little bit better and use it as needed.”
He then praised the district for doing its best in communicating with parents but said that the district needs to keep the ball rolling on it regardless of what the issue is about.
“I think we do a pretty good job. I just think we got to make sure we continue communicating with the parents, no matter if it's good news or bad news,” Hemphill said.
Johnson said that he would encourage teachers to reach out to parents in an effective manner through multiple means of communication.
“The first thing would be a phone call. Obviously, a phone call would be the quickest way to get a hold of a parent,” Johnson said. “Texting, sometimes you get ahold of them, sometimes not. Correspondence is very, very important to send home.”
He also said that he believes parents should routinely visit classrooms and teachers in person to best work with educators and staff at schools.
“I think inviting parents to come into your classroom to visit, to help within your classroom, would be also a great way to correspond and help communicate with parents,” Johnson said.
Roberson said that the way communication must depend on the parent and student’s availability and schedule. He added that there should be more formal and informal methods of communication to best suit what each family desires.
“The communication method needs to be tailored to whatever is going on with that parent,” Roberson said. “And, you know, maybe it's in the evenings, maybe it's early in the morning, but it needs to be more tailored.”
He stated that each student needs a varying level of communication, but all families need to communicate with their teacher.
“The kids that are less disruptive probably need less, you know, that communication. But I remember, you know, notes getting lost in backpacks when I was a kid,” Roberson said.
Abbott said that both teachers and parents need to reach out to each other to ensure that students are taken care of. He said that if external factors could potentially affect a student, schools need to be aware.
“I'm a big believer in communication. It goes both directions, though. We need parents to communicate with us at school to give us information about their children when there are things that are going on,” Abbott said. “When they get ready to come to school and they need to let the school know if there's deaths in families, if the child is having some kind of an issue that may affect their ability to learn.”
He said that he believes teachers can be timid to voice their concerns and communicate with parents due to potential pushback from parents. He concluded that schools must communicate with parents, especially if a student is having issues or concerns.
“Classroom teachers sometimes, I think, are reluctant to share information or call parents because they're concerned that they're going to get backlash,” Abbott said. “I think schools have an obligation to be proactive and get out there in front of problems and have discussions with parents if they're having issues with students.”
Dower used another school district as an example of what he would support in USD 308. He said that the initial communication between a teacher and a parent is the most crucial part of how each party with correspond with each other in the future.
“There was a smaller district that made a huge point to have teachers reach out to parents at the very beginning of the year, before there's ever a problem. You don't want that first contact being ‘Johnny did something bad in class today,’ Dower stated. “You want to start off with a positive relationship.”
He said that he would support communicating with parents in multiple methods.
“I encourage communication in any way. With all the ways we've got to communicate these days, I can't believe it should be a problem,” Dower said.
Canfield-Riggs said that as a parent, she receives notes from her elementary student at Graber School, and those notes give her and her daughter a talking point to discuss the school day.
“When something good happens, There's just a little note with some check boxes that says, you know, this is the behavior exhibited today, and this is why she got a shout-out, and it's a very effective tool for both of us,” Canfield-Riggs said. “On the other end, you know, we have a high schooler that is in our home, and that's one of those areas where we struggle.”
She added that she supports and backs communication between parents and teachers and said that she believes parents must also be proactive in responding to educators about concerns or issues they may have.
“One thing that's always been important to me and special to me about our USD 308 educators is that no matter what the tool is, they will reach out and connect and it's our job as parents to also connect with them.”
Mendez-Rosario said that she thinks it is important to have multiple methods of communicating with parents to ensure that each family is comfortable speaking to a teacher about an issue.
“As a parent, I feel that's not a one-size-fits-all. There's not one way to communicate. I have seen throughout the years, especially lately, that I've been getting different types of communications, which I really appreciate,” Mendez-Rosario said.
She also said she would push for correspondence between families and teachers to be available in multiple languages to best suit families.
“What I would like to see is sometimes things in different languages, being able to be able to do that that way for those families that don't fully understand it don't have to have their child translate,” Mendez-Rosario said.