“Parent U” Set

Gateway Community College will throw open the doors of its downtown campus to public school parents next month, as President Dorsey Kendrick throws her support behind the latest effort to improve city schools.

Gateway will welcome parents of public school students on Saturday, Nov. 3, for the first in a series of free workshops called Parent University. The new initiative, paid for and run by New Haven Public Schools, is based on Parent Universities in Boston and Philadelphia.

Gateway will open its cafeteria to up to 350 public school parents for the daylong event, school officials said.

President Kendrick (pictured) said over 200 New Haven Public School students take classes at Gateway. And some of Gateway’s own students are parents, she added. The average age of students at Gateway is 27.

Her university is donating its facility and perhaps staff time, Kendrick said in a press conference Wednesday morning at Gateway designed to promote the event.

The event marks the latest time Gateway has stepped up to help out the city’s school reform effort. Gateway is joining forces with the city on a new vo-tech school, and is teaching high school kids through a new ​“middle college” initiative. Gateway also recently opened its abandoned Long Wharf campus to Hyde magnet school.

Before announcing the latest collaboration, Mayor John DeStefano nodded to Kendrick’s increasing role in New Haven school reform: He introduced her as the ​“preeminent leader” of Gateway, ​“whom we all work for.”

Click here to sign up for Parent University. Topics include: ​“How to help your child study for exams, planning for college, how to support teenagers, navigating the public school system, reading with your child and fun ways to teach math. Non-academic support workshops will educate parents on how to protect their children from cyber-bullying and abuse.”