This letter is in response to a recent Recorder article about the Greenfield School Committee and its survey to parents. Because of very low response the committee has assumed that there is not interest in having periodic forums for parents to discuss issues they may have. The article did point out that perhaps parents were too busy to respond to the survey because lives are so complex right now. While I do believe that may be a problem, I wish to suggest that perhaps the committee is going about this in the wrong way.
If the issue is to encourage more communication between the community, which I might say includes non-parents/guardians as well as students and business owners, then it might be necessary to be more proactive in reaching out. I encourage the committee to continue with the idea of forums for open dialogue. I would like to see them held at a neutral site like the Senior Center. They might consider having a topic that they present for 10-15 minutes that is of interest to the community and then open it up for comments on any topic with time limits that are more reasonable. I was pleased to see committee member Ms. Deneeve was interested in continuing to pursue some type of forum approach.
The article also mentioned the committee’s concern over legal issues associated with forums. While I am sure there are some issues, if the committee really wants these forums they can build guidelines to deal with issues rather than use legal constraints as an excuse to end the discussion. Perhaps another way to deal with some people’s more specific concerns would be to have certain school administrators available for 10-minute conversations with interested parties. Administrators would take turns being at the forums, maybe two or three each time. If individuals need more than the 10 minutes they can arrange an appointment with the administrator during business hours.
Designing a process for open and respectful communication is a critical part of a school community. The members of the community need to know their school committee is there to listen and be the bridge between them and the school district. The School Committee had the right idea here, they just need to be more proactive and willing to work to develop the process. I hope the School Committee will realize how important communication is and give it this idea the time it deserves to develop.
Shirley Gilfether is a Greenfield resident and a retired educator with 42 years of service.