Annual Dinner fosters connection between school and community

The best way to create strong public schools is to foster a connection between the school and the community it serves.
That was the message delivered to more than 100 local educators last month at the annual Board Dinner sponsored by the San Benito County Office of Education. And while it is meant as a celebration honoring teachers of the year and recognizing other good things happening in education throughout the county, the dinner is also a time for learning, said Tim Foley, the county’s superintendent of schools.

PHOTOS ABOVE LEFT: Guest Speaker Scott Plotkin
ABOVE RIGHT: SBCOE President Joan Campbell-Garcia address audience.

“Of course, we have a good time and enjoy the evening,” he said. “But we also use the event as a way to take a look at what we’ve accomplished and listen to suggestions on how we can make ourselves better.”
Each dinner features a guest speaker specializing in education; this year’s speaker was Scott Plotkin, Executive Director of the California School Board Association. Plotkin spoke to those attending the dinner about creating a sense of ownership in the community in regards to public schools.
“The greatest threat, ultimately, to public education is disconnection,” Foley said. “When schools are no longer seen as belonging to the public, we will lose. We have to make our schools accessible not only to the students we serve, but the community as well. Our schools can be as great as we all make them.”
For a real partnership to happen, educators must find ways to let parents and families become involved in their child’s education, Foley said. There are several ways to do this, including sharing responsibility, mutual respect, and emphasizing community involvement.
“The benefits of community involvement are numerous,” he said. Some examples include higher test scores, increased attendance, less behavioral problems, higher graduation rates, and more students choosing to go to college.
Parental involvement at the elementary level is typically strong, lessening at the junior high and high school levels. Fostering this sense of ownership should help keep parental involvement high, and can even spread to the community as a whole. Many local districts, such as Aromas-San Juan Unified, Tres Pinos Union, and San Benito High School have programs encouraging students to participate in community service or service learning projects. This can help students see the connection between what they are learning in school and the life skills they will need as adults, as well as help adults feel more a part of the school community.
“Plotkin said that we are to be commended for recognizing that it is not just our teachers and ourselves that make our schools great, but having other people involved as well,” Foley said. “Even at the dinner, we had people from outside the educational community, such as representatives for Assemblywoman Anna Caballero and Congressman Sam Farr, and our own county supervisor Jaime De La Cruz, on hand wanting to celebrate with us and be a part of what we are doing.”
Another subject touched on by Plotkin included local and state funding for education. The recent appointment of David Long, the former Riverside County Superintendent of Schools, as the state’s new director of education, has Foley hopeful that state funding, which has taken a hit lately, will become more stable.
“Long will be the primary adviser to the governor, and I think he will be an effective advocate for us,” he said. “Long term, I think the possibility of increased funding in the future looks optimistic.”
There are some concerns for the county as a whole that Foley says he and other education officials will be addressing. The most pressing, he said, are the differences between California’s standardized testing and the national No Child Left Behind Act.

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