Student success focus of roundtable

How could Vancouver Public Schools effectively engage more parents, seen as critical to student success?

How might local employers, churches and other civic groups best serve mentoring and after-school programs?

Should those programs be mandatory, if cost and transportation needs were met?

These and other weighty questions were posed at an invitation-only roundtable hosted by district officials Monday.

Nearly 50 individuals from business, nonprofit, faith-based and government sectors, plus a dozen other select students, parents and educators, were led through four hours of discussion by a hired facilitator.

The topic: “Sharing Responsibility for Student Success” — one of four main prongs of the district’s long-term strategic plan. Listening closely were Superintendent Steve Webb, top district administrators and two school board members.

Webb said the district must move purposefully to create partnerships with lasting impact, each with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

While the concepts may be lofty, there is a real timeline.

For the upcoming 2010-11 school year, Vancouver plans to steer $1.5 million from current remedial learning programs to 12 “Opportunity Zone” schools affected by high poverty.

Among recipients would be Discovery and Jason Lee middle schools, dinged by Washington state as poor performers based on lagging student test results.

Also included would be McLoughlin Middle School, plus most feeder schools for those middle schools: Harney, Martin Luther King Jr., George Marshall, Peter S. Ogden, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fruit Valley, Hough, Lincoln and Washington elementary schools.

The proposal can’t match the nearly $9 million in competitive state grants that Vancouver failed to land for Discovery and Jason Lee this spring. It does offer a blueprint to expand community outreach and after-school activities and mentoring, however.

Which is where ideas voiced by Monday’s guests come in.

Their starting point was 40 community “developmental assets” for students named by a Minnesota-based think tank.

Among key assets: parents and families active in helping children to succeed; support from several nonparent adults; hours spent in sports, creative and cultural activities, religious or other club endeavors; quality family time at home.

Guests brainstormed how best to use volunteers to help match pupils to mentors; earn trust of minority parents with less-intimidating events hosted on or off-campus; help parents mentor parents; grant employees time to volunteer at their child’s school; and remove cost barriers that prevent many students from joining activities.

Webb said administrators will sift through roundtable ideas to form an action plan, up for school board approval this summer.

“This is a huge priority for us. It’s all about relationships and connections,” said board member Mari Greves.

District leaders said they were heartened by positive input, “especially when the easy thing to do was focus on diminishing resources and budget cuts,” said Tom Hagley, district communications director. “We can build on that,” he said.

Jon Girod, a builder and owner of Vancouver-based Quail Homes, warned it’s a critical time to face powerful cultural and societal trends that threaten student achievement and Clark County’s future work force.

“It’s not the economy. You can hide behind that, but it’s not that,” Girod said, citing chronic lapses in motivation and engagement.

Union unhappy

One faction was left dissatisfied by Monday’s exchange.

Roy Maier, Vancouver Education Association executive director, has challenged the district before on RSVP-only advisory councils. Again, he was denied entry (a security officer stood by), despite several requests to join or observe the dialogue, citing Washington’s open public meeting law.

Maier handed out a protest note and left quietly.

Ann Giles, elected president of the Vancouver chapter of the Washington Education Association, did join the roundtable and found some of the discussion fruitful. But teachers and other affected groups were largely shut out by the “controlled” conversation, she said.

“We need to break down the boundaries and barriers that get in the way of the public being involved,” Giles said. Monday “was a really good start, but I think they need to quickly open this up,” she said.

Hagley, the communications chief, said the district follows open meetings law. But the law doesn’t apply to this or any of several “stakeholder” talks the district has hosted during its strategic planning, he said.

“There was a lot of community interest around this topic, which is good,” Hagley said. The VEA was among several groups limited to a single individual to “balance” the input, he said.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.