Teacher conference night: James Via raced to meet with 12 teachers to learn if Michael’s drumming and trumpeting in the school band are calming him down in academic classes, if Jameisha is working up to her reading and writing potential; and if Nate’, the quiet learner of the three, has begun to speak up in class.
The Independent has been following Via’s family and three others this school year to look at how parents can be involved in their children’s education.
This soft-spoken and super-involved single dad got through about nine of the 12 possible teacher meetings when he picked up report cards the other night. (He’d previously talked to a number of other teachers in recent days.) He found time also to respond to an emergency call from the PTO president. She was busy on Tuesday night preparing the school-wide Thanksgiving feast to follow the conferences, but at the last minute discovered she had no ice.
To the rescue, James Via. He went out, procured a cooler and then went to his store, the Burger King he manages on Dixwell just over the Hamden line, and brought back ice to King/Robinson Principal Ilene Tracey. Oh, and there was also time to mentor a longtime friend, another dad, on the workings of the school.
Jameisha’s report card revealed three C’s, two A’s, and three B’s in her 7th grade classes. But the C’s were in her big academic subjects, history/social studies, science, and writing. Her instructors, such as science teacher Michelle Webb (pictured below), told Via she had great potential but that were many missing assignments that brought down her grades. Sometimes she turned in conclusions without showing the work, such as in her recent “falling post-its” lab report.
This was of concern to Via. He or his mother generally goes over all Jameisha’s work, unless she says she’s finished already at school, which seems to be the case. “She wants to knock it off too quick and she’s not concentrating,” he concluded. “So when she comes home she doesn’t have to sit with her brother and sister and work at the table. I know this because I used to be that way myself. And she talks too much to her friends in class.” All told, between science and social studies, 13 assignments were incomplete.
That’s right, Webb added, saying that Jameisha is in that social zone in class between the kids who are serious and those who are too playful. “I thank you, Jameisha,” she said, “today for choosing to be with the kids who are working hard and concentrating.”
Jameisha’s Spanish teacher, Ade DeYounge, confirmed that when Jameisha was working with him and just four other kids on the open-ended written response to questions as part of the CMT preparation, she did fabulously. “She was really good at providing proofs from the text itself to the opinions she held. It was in a non-fiction article on immigration, and she did well.”
Whereas in her language arts class with Susan Levy , she got a C. “Her concentration needs to be higher,” Susan Levy agreed. They have just finished the unit on supporting details for the main idea and will begin one on the sequence of events in a narrative, with an eye to editing and revising. “It will come to her,” Levy re-assured James Via, who knows her daughter can do better. Then Levy got Jameisha to agree to a seat change to solve a behavior problem with two other kids. “She’s wonderful,” said Levy. “I wish I had 15 other Jameishas.”
Her math teacher, Maxine Phillips, who had given Jameisha a B, wanted Via to check Jameisha’s work every night, even if she says she’s finished and she understands it. “As long as I know an adult is checking everything, that’s okay. If Jameisha doesn’t get something, chances are lots of kids don’t, so I’ll go over it in class.”
Phillips, a veteran teacher, rued the fact that the Vias were part of only about 10 percent of the middle-school parents who came to Tuesday night’s conferences. Via defended the school; the administration, he said, makes every effort to reach out to the parents. “I got called three times about tonight, and,” he said, “having the Thanksgiving dinner after the conferences was one lure designed to get more parents to come out.”
Phillips and her math colleagues said that students at King/Robinson in math perform exactly on the level of Hooker School kids up to the fourth or fifth grade. Then the decline begins at King/Robinson, while Hooker kids continue to thrive. “Why? Because in the lower grades we have up to 80 percent of the parents involved in the kids’ work and they come to conferences, which is a sign of that.
“The decline happens,” Phillips said, “beginning in middle school, when the kids put some distance between themselves and the parents, and the parents don’t know what’s going on and are cowed, and become less involved when they should become more involved. Because the kids might act independently, but they’re very much still kids. Increase that parental involvement and the checking of home work in the middle school years, and the performance will go back up.”
Nate’s homeroom teacher, Tania Maust, showed James Via Nate’s first report card — Bs or better in science, social studies, and composition, three As in music, art, and gym, but a C plus in language. “She is good at presenting details in a composition or essay, but needs to be able to explain the connections between the details and the main point or the question posed,” Maust told Via. “But it’s early in the year. She’s a good solid student and she’ll come along.”
The Thanksgiving dinner bell rang before James Via could visit with Michael’s teachers; it turned out that the primary teacher, Ms. Robinson, was ill and not there. But Via had already talked to the computer teacher about Michael’s restlessness in class that seemed to be continuing. “The teacher, said Via, “wanted to be sure Michael knew that she was talking to me. When he did, he can self-correct, as they say around here. And sure enough the teacher said he got back on target.”
Michael Via’s grades were not available at press time.
Before he went down to dinner with his family, fairly satisfied with the conferences but knowing he must monitor the homework of all his kids better, James Via visited with a longtime friend, fellow King/Robinson dad LaShawn Gaines. It turned out that Via is Gaines’ daughter Nikita’s godfather, and Gaines is Nate’s godfather. The two girls are in the same class. Gaines’s work schedule does not permit him to be at the school as much as Via. The two met at Burger King years ago and now play basketball and occasionally work out together. “This man,” Gaines said, “is my inspiration.”
The next key parents meeting at King/Robinson is to establish a parents group to work with possible funders to create an international multicultural resource room at the school reflecting its International Baccalaureate Organization goals. It’s Wednesday Nov. 28 at 10 a.m.. James Via said he’d be there. First, tonight, when he gets the kids home, he’s going to work with Jameisha, who has a science test in Ms. Webb’s class tomorrow on the properties of matter.
For previous installments in the Independent’s series on parental involvement in local schools, click on:
Night-Shift Waitress Hangs Up Apron
Dad Meets The Teachers. All Of ‘Em
Ms. Lopez Moves Brandon’s Seat
Night-Shift Waitress Gets Xena To Class On Time
Fifth-Graders Get “Amistadized”
Board of Ed To Parents: Get Involved!
Task Force Hones Plan for Kids
No doubt, this is but one aspect of this man's life, but it is a very major part and one that will influence not just his own children's lives but those of all with whom they will interact.
This story has been up for a while and, since no one else has said it, let me say, Mr. Via, you are a hero for your children and a role model for parents in this city.
Let me not fail to commend your mother, as well. We should all have such back-up to our efforts.