After a long series of meetings over five months time, the education committee of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council reports that the project to develop a community liaison committee with the Hamilton School staff has come to a stand still. The teachers voted to table the project at a staff meeting in late April.
The proposal developed by the education committee and partially funded by Creative Education was to set up a community-staff liaison committee to develop community resources for the school. Creative Education, a city-wide group of parents and community leaders, is funded by the Danforth Foundation to work on ways to develop closer ties between schools and their communities. The board of Creative Education at the request of the Council voted to provide approximately $700 with a Council providing $200 to pay a part-time person over a three month period to set up resources and programs for the school. A key point in the proposal was that the teachers at the school define what needs they had and then the committee could seek the resources.
The proposal was sent to Charles Brasfield, district superintendent of the Northwest-Soldan District, who studied it for over a month. He agreed to the proposal but insisted that the part-time person first set up the resources and then let the teachers pick and chose what they wanted. He also stipulated that Creative Education only work with the Council not directly with the school and that only he and the principal evaluate the proposal.
The proposal was then presented to the staff at the school by Jim Parrett, board member of Creative Education and Hamilton parent, and Calvin Stuart, executive director of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council. Mr. Brasfield also attended the meeting. The teachers stated that the proposal was vague, but Mr. Stuart pointed out that it was up to the committee and the teachers to develop specific projects. Mr. Brasfield ended the discussion by saying that there were two communities here one that sent its children to the school and those that didn’t. Mr. Stuart later commented that he and Mr. Garrett had tried to point out that the liaison committee was a good way of bringing the two together. The staff voted to table the proposal.
Mr. Garrett. who is also in charge of a group of parents interested in negotiating directly with the Board of Education to explore ways of getting more classroom space, stated that he intended to keep trying to find ways of developing closer ties and more parent participation at the school.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_05.pdf, printed page 3.
