Portland Parent Union Will Not Support the Listening Dialogue later on Today.
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We Will Not Show Up!
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We weighed this decision very carefully and are making a stand against the assumptions by PPS that it is ok to have a "Bandaid Gathering."
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This is more harmful to families and will confirm the distrusts that are already in place. It is Disrespectful to all Parents for PPS to wait to the Last Minute to gather for what you will call Healing? This is business as usual and there must be a shift.......
This will also compromise PPU's integrity and minimize our process. We believe You Are Not Representing Us Well, either.We are Families Ourselves. There needs to be a month or more to organize, establish a support team, investigate, recruit and advertise so all families can have a voice.
Why we came to this decision. See narrative below..
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April 16, 2017
Parents must have their needs met. The education institution is responsible to create something that empowers all families in the system.
Sheila Warren, Founder and Director of Portland Parent Union Creators of Restorative Listeningdialogue all one word. Often confused with Resolutions Northwest's Restorative Justice. We advocate dialogues especially with Families and Teachers. More for the Adults. We show up to represent the best interest of the parents. The Principal and the PTA assumed we were someone else? I/We have been harmed trying to fight a genuine healing space for those who are harmed. How do we get healing for our own selves?
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When we weigh situations out it is the ones who have the power who are responsible for the best restorative process possible. Most times this does not happen. The families are not heard. This creates anger and distrust which ends up forcing families to take drastic moves, like taking the incident to the public. Any support is better than no support? As we all know this ends up being more harmful! We are here now!
Took the weekend to ponder how I would support this process which is a last minute ask. Started this note last Friday but decided to allow myself time to weigh out this process. I was already convinced that this is to short of a proces. Puzzled by the more we advised and recommeded against the process so soon the more justification PPS had in wanting to move forward?
After the last fragmented conversation with the school climate director we were convinced that he was getting pressure from top up to move this thing. Conversations created more skepticism and conflict. Even the principal felt the same way. Invitations were not sent out until Wednesday April 12.
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After the last conversation on Friday morning with Principal Glasgow I became conflicted as well. The conversation I heard created skepticism. The language I heard the first time was very humble and received. The second conversation on Friday seemed to be more haughty and judgemental. More like the script we usually hear from those in leadership at PPS to appease us. We had concerns but the conversation blaming the parents and the community took my concerns over the top. Instead of taking some responsibility for the chaos going on at the school. I also got input from those in house that there were plenty of opportunities for dialogues to happen sooner than later. We believe when children fall through the cracks it is all of the adults' fault. Its the parents who are blamed.
There were two things we asked not to do but folks decided to do anyway. This will now compromise creating a safe space for those families that attend the school who are the most marginalized and those who support the principal. I was led to believe only inviting parents for the process. Principal told me later that she invited the community also and the neighborhood association. We considered this a breech and thought it to early to bring in the community.We emphasized to PPS this process cannot happen in one session. We need to take care of those who go to the school first.
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PPU says “Parents should be involved in developing, implementing, and evaluating school activites and this process, no exception.
Indicators that helped us to change our minds.
1. Not inclusive of all in the system who does RJ for this process. Had to prompt them to include these folks.
2. Could not get Straight Answers. This move was political to cover PPS.
3. Management protected the principal.
4. Principal was hesitant to speak out about more time.
5​. Was not able to identify the roots of the problems yet.
6. Did not get to investigate. No returned phone calls of school personnel except for principal's.
​7. Compromising the integrity of the process.
8. The last minute invites.
9. Fears of retaliation mentioned from middle management.........
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The rude, demanding parents who bully schools Families will turn into bullies when they don't get answers
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Including the Excluded: De-Marginalizing Immigrant/Refugee and Racialized Students
Racism in schools is pushing more black families to homeschool their children
Eurocentric school curricula continues to prevail in a society that is increasingly brown.
What the U.S. Census says about homeschool families (Julie Mack blog)
Stop Punishing Children with Their Education
I hope you were as alarmed as I was when you read the recent Washington Post article on the increasing numbers of young children being suspended from school. We are sending the wrong message to these students--a message that diminishes the value of education.
Expectations. There is Dissatisfaction with all aspects of the current situation. A Decline in benevolence and integrity from the leaders. Switches to an alternate set of principals. (Betrayal) Decline in Openess from all stakeholders. Relationship building and gaining trust is the best answer. With trust schools are much more likely to benefit from the collaborative and productive effforts of their faculty and staff, which in turn help generate the results for students that educators yearn for.
To Short Notice Requested to talk to black parents. The PTA. Immigrant Families. Faculty. Left a call with Restorative Justice Coordinator and Student support Coordinator who knew nothing about this event until they got the flyer.Talked to the RJ Director and she knew nothing about it. I asked questions about reaching all these folks and got vague answers.
at 5:00pm · Hopefully everyone received this email from PPS today about the community dialogue, but I thought I'd share it here as well. I spoke with Lisa McCall today, and the plan is to have childcare, translators, and light snacks available at the meeting. Hello Vestal families, We would like to invite you to attend a special event. Portland Public Schools, in partnership with Resolutions Northwest, is hosting a Community Healing Dialogue for all Vestal families (It is PPU and not RNW)
This Incident has much to teach us about trying to run a school without trust.Trust serves a lubricant of organizational functioning: without it schools are likely to experience the overheated friction of conflict as well as a lack of progress toward their admirable goals. There is no way to lead schools successfully without building, establishing, and maintaining trust within and across the many and varied constituencies they serve
Click on Info to go to picture and link
​STATEMENT: Good collaborations could be good collaborations regardless. The strategies outlined in our work together seems clear but PPS's efforts to be on the same page with our families have been frustrating. Our determined efforts to change the way that PPS views our families has landed in an impasse. We sense in our interactions that institutions like PPS don't have the capacity or the wherewithal to build true relationships with families. ​The education system is so complicated, even though the district is claiming they are doing the best they can. It is literally impossible to be effective when lots of indicators are missing. PPU gets more upset around people who are claiming they are doing the right thing.
It would be believable if all sat down on a routine schedule to work things out. It would be believable if PPS could take our advice. How PPS deals with families and students is problematic.This project shows that PPS continues to be the GATEKEEPER. We have tried to create a climate of healing and dialogues across the board on an ongoing basis over the years, but to no avail. Always there is interference. This process is another failure. Again PPS gives famiies very little time to work out differences as well as working out a plan that will hold the principal and others responsible. Dominant leaders get to decide how to address families concerns which creates irreversible harm to families. Often PPS airs on the side of the principal, rather than being neutral.
"Doing something status quo" and getting same poor results shouldn’t surprise anyone. We are convinced that there is fear of real change? Maybe the systems are just to complicated!
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