School district may make volunteering mandatory

School district may make volunteering mandatory
By Sharon Noguchi


snoguchi@mercurynews.com

Posted: 05/10/2010 12:01:00 AM PDT



As part of "Fun Fridays,", parent volunteer Huitzilin Mata demonstrates... ( Patrick Tehan )«123»
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If parent participation in classrooms is good, why not make it mandatory?

That's the thinking of some in San Jose's Alum Rock Union School District, where a committee is crafting a proposal to require families of all 13,000 students to volunteer at least 30 hours a year at school.

It's a tall order. The disparity in parent volunteers is as wide as the economic rift in the valley, as schools serving affluent families depend on moms and dads to drive on field trips and help with science projects, while schools teaching poor children often lack such involvement.

In Alum Rock, where 88 percent of the students are poor and 54 percent are language-learners, most of its 28 schools don't even have a PTA. But even as some critics warn working parents don't have extra time, trustee Gustavo Gonzalez is pushing volunteerism, citing studies showing that students do better when their parents are involved.

"We're trying to create a culture of strong parent-guardian-family participation in schools," he said.

Although it's not clear whether state law permits districts to require parents to donate time to schools, proponents say that's besides the point. In addition to getting parents to embrace the expectation that they participate on campus, the district wants to persuade principals and teachers to welcome parents in the classroom, Gonzalez said.

The Alum Rock proposal is modeled after the policy at the school Gonzalez's children attend,


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Adelante Dual Language Academy, one of three small alternative schools in Alum Rock. Adelante even grades parents — with a check, minus or plus — on their participation, and refers them to the principal when they're overly delinquent.

Gonzalez said the final proposal wouldn't necessarily adopt such measures. The school board's parent participation committee is gathering endorsements for its proposal on volunteering, which could go to the full board sometime in the summer.

Not everyone agrees that mandating volunteerism will work.

"I think it's a really bad idea," said Kim Mesa, a stalwart volunteer and former Alum Rock trustee. The requirement can't be enforced, she said. Schools can't refuse to educate kids whose parents don't volunteer. And parents can be resentful: "I've had parents tell me to my face, 'Who are you to tell me what I should do with my kids?' " Mesa said. Likewise, she said not all teachers want volunteers in their classrooms.

Mesa points out that many parents simply lack time to spend at school. "When you have three part-time jobs, there isn't a lot of time to be volunteering." Add to that a language barrier, and a lot of parents won't step on campus, she said.

In affluent areas, where parents have more leisure time and more familiarity with the tradition of helping on campus, volunteers are a mainstay of high-achieving schools.

"PTAs do marvelous things for us," said Principal Carmen Giedt of Terman Middle School in Palo Alto. Volunteers shelve library books, publish a family directory, run after-school clubs and provide each teacher with a $300 grant for supplies. "They do incredible stuff that is all behind the scenes," Giedt said.

Regardless of income or background, students with involved parents are more likely to earn higher grades and test scores, be promoted, attend school regularly, have better social skills and graduate, according to a study by the Texas-based Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Gonzalez has long wanted to promote more parent involvement and was urged to push the proposal by his wife, Grace, who coordinates volunteers at Adelante school. There parents are informed about the 30-hour volunteer obligation at registration and orientation. "The message is always a positive one, emphasizing the positive aspects and the rewards for both the child and the parent or caregiver," Grace Gonzalez said.

No families have left Adelante because of the volunteer requirement, Principal Sandra Garcia said. And when parents fall behind in hours, she said, "I will give them a call and we'll talk. It's not a threatening type of session; it's more how can we help you meet your commitment."

The school is looking into ways for other parents or community members to "adopt" students whose families face hardships in participating, she said.

The goal isn't so much to help teachers or the school. "The benefit for me is I know what my daughter is doing in class," said Adelante parent Stacy Benedict, a single mother who works full time as a social worker. Being in the classroom or taking home projects such as cutting paper or compiling booklets shows her daughter Adisa that "I care about her going to school and I put my time into her getting a good education."

In order to volunteer at Adelante, Melissa Tumale rearranged her schedule to work nights. The PTA president said she spends about 25 hours a week doing various school jobs, including coordinating volunteers in her son's first-grade classroom.

"He notices whether I'm here or not," she said recently as she was volunteering at Adelante. Seeing her work motivates him to take school seriously, she said. "They see it in a whole different light when they see parents here."