The role of parents in the Buffalo school system was on the table again last night. The Buffalo Parent Teacher Organization told the board parents shouldn't be punished for opting-out of tests for their children.
Meanwhile, the District Parent Coordinating Council is pushing for deep parental involvement in just about every phase of school operations.
"Being a parent is not the easiest thing out there," admitted Board Member Sharon Belton Cottman.
"We know that the best effort that some parents can do is just to get their child to school and we need to pick up from there and we will acknowledge that. But, at the other hand we need more parent engagement in this district to make this district grow in a big way."
DPCC President Sam Radford says a key problem is that the large structure of the city system makes parental involvement more difficult and there has been pushback while suburban schools have greater parental involvement because school district residents vote on the budgets and capital spending.
