In the case of sexual experimentation, Wink said one year the school had some advanced eighth-grade students.
"So I use that as an arena to get the news to parents." A lot of times what happens during the weekend comes back into the schools, he said. If Wink does, he tries to share what he can or sometimes offers to investigate further. Often parents ask Wink if he is aware of talk among students of risky behavior, such as drug use or sexual experimentation. Also, I get to know what rumors are out there." "This gives me the opportunity to get accurate information into the community, rather than just deal with rumors. "If there is a rumor that there was a rash of fights or a group of suspensions, by the time the story gets home it's been blown out of proportion," he said. Wink also uses the chats as a chance to exercise rumor control. Often parents ask about what's going on in the schools or upcoming activities if it is enrollment time, they talk about course selection. "We only have them for two years, so we want to get as much parent involvement as we can," he explained. If attendance at the meetings hasn't been very high for a while, Wink asks parents to bring a buddy to the next chat, particularly a sixth-grade parent, so he or she can learn more about the school.
It builds trust, which may be the foundational thing that allows everything else to happen, and ensures that everyone is on same page and doing what's best for kids. "Around enrollment time, we usually have more people," Wink noted. Now at Indian Woods, a 7-8 school, he holds the forums twice a month and they have drawn between one and 30 people to each meeting. I used it as an opportunity to talk about test scores and our successes." If parents didn't have any burning issues, we would just talk about what was going on in the schools. It just gave us a chance to talk in a small-group setting. "I had nothing planned for myself or my assistant principal. "I had no agenda - parents were the agenda," Wink told Education World about those initial meetings.
There was a feeling among parents at the time that they were not welcome in the school and he wanted to open communication. Wink said he started the brown-bag chats 11 years ago when he was principal of another middle school. Most of the parents are pretty open this provides an opportunity to give the school side and provide factual information." "It lets you know what's going on and what the perceptions of the community are. "It's a really good public relations program," said Jim Wink, principal of Indian Woods Middle School in Overland Park, Kansas. Superintendents and principals are using the brown-bag forums, and some reported to Education World that the informal gatherings not only have improved relations with parents and other residents, but also given them insight into what is going on in the community. In the same way kids get to know one another over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches brought from home, some administrators are hoping to build better relationships with parents by inviting them to brown-bag lunch chats. Included: Tips and topic ideas for brown-bag lunches. Best Books for Teachers, Students and ParentsĪdministrators at the school and district level are finding that inviting parents and community members to chat over brown-bag lunches gains them allies in the community and helps keep everyone informed.
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