By Patric Hedlund
All parents of the Mountain Communities—homeschoolers especially—are invited to join in a forum on education on Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Frazier Park School. The forum is hosted by El Tejon Unified School District.
Paula Harvey, a teacher at El Tejon School (and former curriculum coordinator for the district) explained the goals of the evening. “The community outreach and homeschooling project we’re doing includes a community forum where parents of both homeschooled and ETUSD students are welcome to provide input into education on the mountain. The forum is being hosted by Dena Kiouses (principal of Frazier Park and El Tejon Schools), Dan Penner (principal of Frazier Mountain High School) and me.
“However, the facilitators of the forum will be parents of students from the three schools.
“We have created a survey for homeschool parents and for parents of ETUSD students.”
The surveys ask parents of homeschooled students and public school students to both weigh in with information about their chosen form of education for their children. Homeschool parents are asked about their reasons for preferring to homeschool.
They are asked if they are aware of specific programs offered by ETUSD, and what programs or services might interest them or their children.
The survey goes on to ask what programs parents might want the district to offer, and then asks “if the El Tejon Unified School District were to offer the above programs, would you consider enrolling your child in a school in the district?”
Harvey explained that the content of the forum discussions on March 16 will cover some of this territory in focus groups, but also be open to other comments and information that parents believe would be of value.
The goal of the forum, Harvey said, is “to get feedback from parents about the strengths and weaknesses of our programs, and to know what parents see as priorities.”
She said that the district wishes to evaluate “possible changes and improvements we can make.”
Harvey said the school district personnel are interested in knowing which homeschooling programs are being used and the reasons that parents on the mountain choose to homeschool their children.
She said they want to know if there is a way the district “might be able to provide support for their students’ educational needs.”
Homeschool social activity groups have reported to The Mountain Enterprise in the past that they believe there is an unusually high number of homeschooling families in this area.
“My wife and I are willing to attend.” Brad Oliver said in an interview on Tuesday, March 8. “Much of our outreach earlier did not appear welcomed. But it is in all our interest to have good public schools, if only for property values.” Laurie Oliver, who served as a science substitute at Frazier Mountain High School, now homeschools their two daughters, who have excelled in the past in ETUSD’s Science Fair competitions.
This is part of the March 11, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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