New Haven Independent

Palmieri (pictured above during his animated presentation), a former East Rock School principal, is now a consultant to the city school system. A big part of his message was that parents and teachers have to cooperate to achieve success for the city’s school children. And a big part of that success is mutual respect and communication.

He said it’s important to focus on a child’s strengths when speaking to parents, but not to neglect discussing areas that need improvement. Too often, he said, teachers gloss over a student’s weaknesses, perhaps hoping not to offend a parent — which hurts the student in the long run. James Moye, father of eight children (pictured with Patti Avallone, Title I supervisor who runs the training), said that was unacceptable. “Our children are the primary purpose of why we’re here. It’s about keeping it real with them. They want to hear the truth.” Click here for some of their dialogue.

Friday was the closing day of a two-week session, held annually for the past 17 years, to empower parents (and grandparents raising their grandkids) within the city’s education system. In fact, quite a few of the approximately two dozen attending were grandparents and most of the rest were middle aged parents like Moye.

There was a palpable sense of this training program being the salvation of these hard-pressed guardians. As Palmieri pointed out to relieved laughter, “You don’t need another workshop that teaches you how to improve your kid’s reading score. If you have young teenagers, you need a workshop that teaches you how to survive ‘til tomorrow.”

Bernice Small (pictured) has been raising her 17-year-old grandson since he was in kindergarten. She said she’d learned important things about parents’ rights that she didn’t know when raising her own son. Click here for her poignant musings on that subject.

Arshae Campbell, 14 (pictured, carrying Autumn Holloway), attended the entire training with her grandmother, who’s raising her and her two siblings. She said one thing she found useful was information about the CAPT test, which she’ll be taking this year. Asked if she thought parents have a hard job, she said, “Yes, but I guess by taking this training they learn more to help us as children.”

These parents are taking the first step toward helping the district develop a parental involvement policy, which is required under the No Child Left Behind Act. In their own brainstorming sessions on Friday (pictured are two engaged parents), they came up with different wording but the same principles as in the Act, which requires “the participation of parents in regular, two-way and meaningful communication involving students’ academic learning and school activities.”

Those who graduated on Friday will be the backbone of parental involvement efforts in the schools.