Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2014 V 44 No 1 | Page 32

Putting
student success

at the center

of planning
and budgeting

Parents, community
partners and students are
learning more about how to
participate in their schools,
and are seeing in tangible
ways how their engagement
makes a difference.

32

Leadership

M

y daughter goes to a great
public school. The last API
was 937 and its similar
schools ranking is consistently 9 out of 10. But as a parent, what
is most important to me is that she just
finished first grade and is reading chapter
books, loves math and science and feels safe
and connected to her peers, the teachers
and staff, and our thoughtful principal. For
most children at her school this is the case,
and where students are struggling there is a
commitment to getting them the resources
and support they need to be successful.
I am proud of our school, but there has
been unrest. During the economic downturn, as the state slashed education funding,
our school district teetered on the brink of
bankruptcy. At its worst, with our supplies
funding exhausted mid-year, the PTA was
backfilling the gap and actually paying for
toilet paper.
I was seeing the devastation from both
a macro level as we agonized over the state
budgets from 2008 to 2012, as well as the
very personal, micro level at our school. But

I have a confession to make. Although for
the last 15 years I’ve had the opportunity to
live and breathe education policy, first at EdSource and the California School Boards Association, and now at Children Now, I have
to say I didn’t really engage at the district
level. This is coming from someone who for
nearly eight years worked with school board
members and superintendents throug