More Than 200 Come To Ansonia School Forum

Faced with a need for three more classrooms and three new teachers to accommodate a growing student enrollment at Prendergast School, education officials Monday night asked 200 parents in a special community meeting to get more involved in their children’s education.

This is why we’re appealing to you,” said Assistant Superintendent Diane Conway, in the first of three community meetings in the schools that will be held this week.

You have to be knowledgeable about what’s happening in the district. We just can’t do it alone. We need your involvement in the education of your students,” Conway said.

The community meetings will continue Tuesday at the middle school and Thursday night at the high school. Check school offices for cancellations in case of snow.

The meetings come in the middle of the budget season, when town boards are reviewing budget requests. The education request for 2010-11 is $26.8 million, a 4.9 percent increase from this year’s budget.

The schools need parents to get out to the budget meetings, and to spread the word about the work they do and the things they need, said principal Lawrence P. DiPalma.

If you can talk it up at your churches, at your clubs, talk about what we’re doing in the schools. How students with reading disabilities need smart boards and computers, and when it’s time for the budget to come out in public meetings, go,” DiPalma said.

The parents were invited by a flyer that went home to them. One parent, Carol Ryan, said she would like to be informed in advance of PTO meetings, as well, so she can get more involved in that way.

It would be easier for people to get here. I have no babysitter,” Ryan said at the meeting.

DiPalma praised her for her interest in the group, which he said would be helpful in the cause. He is in his first year as principal at Prendergast.

Parental involvement is a key to academic performance. Conway asked the parents to make homework and schoolwork a priority for their children and read to them. They should also listen to them read aloud.

Talk with your child, find out how you can support them, and find out what they’re struggling with,” Conway told the parents.

Conway and DiPalma also invited the parents to visit the classrooms, perhaps volunteer to help out, and probably get involved in fundraising.

Help from other sources is also valuable. The school officials gave credit to a grant program for obtaining five new smart boards, interactive boards that connect with a computer and the Internet among other functions, in use at the school this year.

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