D-200 Parent University - yesterday

Woodstock District 200 held its 2012 Parent University yesterday at Woodstock North High School. Considerable effort and expense went into creating a half-day program and included a keynote speaker from Tucson.

Dennis Embry, Ph.D., was a delight as the keynote speaker and in the first of two hour-long sessions of his that I attended. In fact, it wasn't just an hour. Although it started a little late (due to "technical difficulties"), it ran almost 30 minutes over. He held the attention of the many parents who followed him from the auditorium to his classroom presentation. He definitely was not dull or boring! Dennis had conducted programs for students on Friday.

What does every school do when it's time to change classes? They sound a klaxon or bell that would wake the dead. Do they think that students won't hear them? Have you ever been in WNHS during a changing period? What did Dennis use to capture attention of those in class? A harmonica!

You can catch some of Dr. Embry's materials by clicking here. They are well worth reviewing!

Returning this year was Dr. Michael Feld, a North Shore psychiatrist whom I wish we could clone in McHenry County. I had heard him speak at last year's Parent University, and he was one of the reasons I attended this year. He is an unusual psychiatrist in that he conducts counseling sessions with his patients.

Without a doubt the intentions of the D200 staff were high. A large number (25) of booths were staffed by agency and service providers.

But where were the parents?!!! This year, to boost attendance, D200 invited other school districts to join in this program. Invited were McHenry High School District 156, Harvard School District 50, Johnsburg School District 12 and Alden-Hebron School Distict 19. Did anyone show up from those districts?

At the morning opening session at 8:30AM I estimated there were 50 parents in the WNHS auditorium. Maybe 60.

The morning's schedule was geared up to accommodate 200-300 parents. Where were they? Topics included co-parenting in two homes; bullying; under-age drinking; transitioning to college; ADHD: a misunderstood diagnosis and two sessions in Spanish. One of the things that the district ought to determine is whether Spanish-speaking parents want separate sessions. What about including them in sessions, but providing a translator and earphones? Sort of like the U.N., you know...

Hopefully, D-200 will conduct a post-mortem (I recommended this last year) this year and get to the bottom of the reason for low attendance. They should pull in other members from the community for ideas, including marketing specialists. If they try this again next year and can't increase attendance, the program will likely die a quiet death.

One of the reason might be that school district personnel are educators, not marketing specialists. When you don't have a needed skill, then you go out and get it. I wonder how many "tools" were used to get parents there yesterday: social media, email, students' backpacks, school electronic notices to parents, broad invitations from each principal in the district, personal invitations from the students to their own (and other) parents, etc.

A question for each D-200 parent that the district ought to be asking tomorrow is, Did you know that Parent University was last Saturday? Start with that question. And go from there.