A perfect 10
Karen Chambers, a parent volunteer for the Brooklyn conference, displays a 10th-anniversary cake.
Participants learn CPR techniques in a workshop at the Bronx conference.
Ten years, 50 conferences!
Every fall since 2010, public school parents and community leaders in each borough have flocked to five Saturday conferences, courtesy of the UFT. This year, the borough-specific events had an especially festive atmosphere as they marked their 10th anniversary.
From 1997 until 2009, the UFT held one citywide conference. The change to five borough events provided “the opportunity to engage folks in the very communities we serve,” said Nicholas Cruz, the UFT director of community and parent engagement. “In the span of six or eight weeks, we reach more than 3,000 parents, educators and community-based organizations. With those numbers, with that reach, we can have an impact on communities; we can have an impact on legislation.”
Queens parents check in at their conference.
Twenty-two years after the first UFT parent conference, these events still help parents harness their power to improve public schools for their children. And the local conferences are better able to serve the unique needs of parents in each borough.
“Each conference has its own style,” said Celia Green, a Brooklyn parent who attends and helps plan conferences in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. “In all cases, it’s a team effort.”
The first conference this year was for Manhattan parents. Held on Oct. 26 at UFT headquarters, it featured 16 workshops and, for the first time, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fair for middle and high school students — one example of how the event evolves every year. Green said the conference was full of “excellent presenters, engaged audiences and really knowledgeable people.”
Participants learn about sugar content in drinks at the Bronx conference
The Staten Island parent conference at IS 2 on Nov. 2 featured games, music and activities for the kids. For the grownups, there were workshops in English and Spanish about parent advocacy, communication, self-care and more. Fredey Rodriguez, who was attending his third parent conference, encouraged other parents to participate. With the “right information” — which parents may struggle to get from their children’s schools, but can get easily from the UFT, Rodriguez said — “we can make sure our ideas become actions.”
A week later and 30 miles north, the Bronx parent conference welcomed more than 300 parents to the UFT’s borough office. In two of the seven workshops offered, Amiel Lucre learned about first aid at a Stop the Bleed training and about special education mediation. Lucre said she’s been “struggling” to get her son the services he needs in school for his disability. “I’m informed about procedures, but when things go wrong, I don’t know what to do,” she said. The conference, Lucre said, is “a great resource for the Bronx community” and showed her “the next step to take.”
The next Saturday, Nov. 16, more than 400 parents gathered at P 140 in Brooklyn, where the planning committee put together a carnival-themed event complete with lively student performances, a photo booth and makeovers by cosmetology students. There was a teen summit, 21 workshops and more than 100 exhibitors. Karen Chambers, a parent volunteer, said the conference is like a “support group” for parents, who realize once they talk to each other that “they’re not the only ones facing problems” in schools. “There’s a lot of help out there that they don’t know about,” she said, until they come to the conference.
Parents take a workshop titled Steering Your Students Toward Success at the Staten Island conference.
The parents who attended the Queens conference on Nov. 23 at the UFT’s borough office learned about everything from school budgets to busing and specialized transportation. Tonya Williams, the mother of a 2nd-grader, said “it’s not easy to keep up” with all the things her son’s generation is dealing with, such as new technology and the Next Generation Learning Standards. But because the UFT offers “so much information” with “no shame or judgment,” Williams said, she can do her part to help her son.
As the parent conferences grow stronger each year, so does the partnership among parents, educators and the union in their work to support public schools.
“Parents are with the UFT because of the bridge and guidance provided by the UFT community and parent liaisons,” said Cruz. “We have the start of a parent movement because of our parent and community power.”
