Objective: To transform the community’s attitude about public
education through improving and strengthening the Board of Education’s
responsiveness to community concerns, by building a community vision
of education in Toledo, by being efficient and effective in using
taxpayer dollars, and by harnessing community resources in a collective
and constructive fashion to support Toledo’s children and our
public schools.
It is our belief that we want to make every resident an "owner"
of our schools. We must move from a customer service approach that
views everyone as customers. Customers have no stake in the school
but are simply "serviced" by the institution. When customers
become unhappy with the "product or service", they simply
buy elsewhere. "Owners" have a vested interest and work
hard to resolve the problems and issues. "Owners" don't
cut and run when the going is tough, they roll up their sleeves and
work to make the institution, in this case our public schools, a success!
Check out our suggestions below to facilitate discussion.
Here are suggestions for starting the debate and discussion regarding
how TPS can achieve the community engagement objective.
Parent & Community Relations
• Create an Office of Parent Relations led by parents with
representation on the Superintendent’s cabinet and a direct
reporting relationship to the Board of Education.
• Create parent resource centers in schools that can aid
parents in finding the resources that parents need to assist their
children in overcoming educational, physical and mental issues.
The parent resource centers would be open to all parents in the
Toledo Public School District.
• Encourage all community and civic organizations to use
the parent resource centers as a means of reaching parents and children
and providing services needed by parents.
• “Special” board meetings would be held throughout
the district to create a dialogue with parents, students and interested
community, business, labor, governmental, and civic organizations.
The meetings would be held in various locations including community
centers, libraries, union halls, businesses, etc.
• Create a variety of ways in which the Board can obtain
parent and community input through use of technology such as a web
site (AskTPS.com) dedicated to improving communications about school,
parent and community issues. A telephone hot line could be established
for parents that would be managed through the Office of Parent Relations.
• Create a Community Covenant between TPS and various business,
government, community, religious, labor and civic organizations
that make education a priority in Toledo to facilitate the development
of programs and attitudes that enhance support for Toledo’s
children and public education.
• Develop an ongoing relationship with city and county leaders
where schools support the regional goals to improve the local economy
and other issues and where city and county leaders support the community’s
vision of public education.
Data Driven Decision Making/Benchmarking
• Create mechanisms that collect data about parent and community
complaints to identify on-going problems which can be used by the
Board and administration to proactively identify and develop solutions
for these problems.
• Create a mechanism to survey parents leaving the district
for charter, private and suburban districts to identify why parents
are leaving and develop “real” solutions to retain students
and increase district enrollment.
