61 attend Parent University

Sixty-one people attended the Woodstock District 200 Parent University this morning at Woodstock North High School.

The program, which was advertised for several months in Woodstock, offered one-hour presentations by speakers on such topics as parenting, co-parenting, bullying, pharming and drugs. After the opening presentation by Dr. Michael Feld, parents had a choice of attending two presentations out of nine, including two presented in Spanish.

For me, it was a tough choice. Dr. Feld's first 30-minute session as keynote speaker was excellent. He crammed much material from his 5- and 6-hour workshops into 30 minutes, and I stayed around for another hour of material. That meant I then had to choose one session from the others. Would I stay for Dr. Feld's second hour or choose another? I very easily could have stayed for Dr. Feld's second hour.

I chose CJay Harmer's presentation on bullying. Although it was a small group in a classroom, it was an active group, with many questions. School Board member Bob Burchfield attended this session, as did four parents. CJay is with Youth Service Bureau and works in many area schools during the week.

But that meant I missed Shira Greenfield's presentation about co-parenting in two homes; Sgt. Bruce Talbot's presentation on Pharming: A Look at Prescription Medication Abuse; Dr. Christine Poulos' talk on Raising Healthy Teens; and Mark Sanders' talks on Raising Drug-Free Kids in a Drug-Using World and Restoring Peace to Parents: Surviving the Turbulent Teen Years.

The Parent University was offered to D-200 parents of students in 6th through 12th Grades. The D-200 website reveals a student population of more than 6,300. Middle and high school students account for 3,411, and elementary school students total 3,325; there are 44 students at Clay Academy (D-200's therapeutic day school), 22 students in the MCC Life Connection program (Age 18-21 Transition Program for student in Special Education), and 20 students at "other facilities".

It was a morning of excellent speakers, complete with coffee, bagels, fruit, OJ and door prizes. One mom won two tickets to a Bulls game; her son will be thrilled!

So, out of 3,411-5,000 parents how come only 61 showed up?