"We Think We Can", Part 4
Pulling Parents In

Raising three children as a single parent, Stewart says: "My first goal was to keep my kids safe. You can't do anything until you're sure of that." And the neighborhood had her worried. Her children had to walk to school on streets that were unpaved and dusty. The property next to the school was literally a junkyard, overflowing with an accumulation of debris. She and her kids would walk their dog around the junk-strewn hillside, looking at the vista beyond their immediate surroundings. Stewart found herself imagining something better—for her neighborhood, her children, and herself.

As soon as her youngest child started kindergarten, Stewart enrolled at Spokane Falls Community College. She also accepted then—Principal McDonald's invitation to get involved as a school volunteer. "The first job they gave me was doing cut-outs," she says, "but my involvement has grown from there."

That's a bit of an understatement. Stewart is completing a term as chairperson of the Bemiss Site Council and has become a powerful force for change in the community. She helped push for a cleanup of the junkyard and has been actively pursuing a plan to convert the 25-acre site to recreational use. She has also advocated for an extended-day program at Bemiss School. While her children have been receiving extra help with academics, Stewart has had time to continue her studies in urban and regional planning at Eastern Washington University. Her experience as a Bemiss parent has played no small part in her personal growth. "I've matured as a person as I've gotten more involved in this school," she says.

Since the reform effort began at Bemiss, the school has worked hard to reach out to parents like Stewart. "When parents are offered resources, they feel less alone and isolated," says Melissa Kopczynski, a Bemiss counselor. She often refers families to social services and agencies outside the school. "We can't fix family dynamics at school," Kopczynski says, "but we can play a facilitator role. Parents can get involved here and feel like they're part of a larger family."

Despite the open door, parents as actively involved as Stewart remain the exception. Recruiting volunteers in a high-poverty neighborhood is an ongoing challenge, Spear acknowledges. Some parents have had bad experiences with schools in the past. Many are working two jobs already and can't find time to volunteer. Some are not confident about their own skills. And when budget cuts loom, Bemiss parents are not likely to write letters or call the school board. "Our parents don't tend to speak up," says Spear. "We have to advocate for them."

Bemiss has gradually expanded its base of volunteers by providing academic training to parents. The school trains parents in the same strategies used to teach reading and math in their children's classes, then pays them a small stipend for volunteering time in the classroom. In addition, a Family Learning Center equipped with computers and books is open to families throughout the day and after school. Parents can attend adult-education classes at the school in the evenings.

For some parents, access to these resources provides a turning point. "We see parents gaining confidence and developing good work habits," says Smesrud. "Then we have to struggle to hold onto them as volunteers. Once we have them trained," she adds, "they often wind up getting new jobs." But as her smile indicates, that's cause for celebration, not complaint.

The Bemiss community has learned that success often brings new challenges. Now that this school has become a shining example of reform, other schools—poor, but not as poor as Bemiss—are asking to share the district's Title I funds. The Spokane district currently has five Title I Schoolwide programs in place and soon will add a sixth, says Olsen. For the 1999-2000 school year, Bemiss Elementary is projected to lose nearly $50,000, forcing cuts in staffing. Says Spear, "We're going to fight to keep the integrity of our program. The budget struggle makes us more determined to succeed."

Success at Bemiss has come about not only because of financial investments but also through "creation of a complex system," says Olsen. "It takes individual teachers in their classrooms, a principal with a vision, support from downtown [at the district level], and support from the community." A unified vision is what ties all these pieces together, Olsen adds. "At Bemiss, they share a vision of what kids can do."

Spear describes that vision forcefully: "How do we help the children of poverty? Are they children who can learn? We believe they are. And we believe we know how to help them. And we'll just keep pushing," she says, "until all children are making it."

Here in the Hillyard District, that road ahead can look awfully steep sometimes. But almost every day, says counselor Kopczynski, "We see glimmers of wonderful." Recently, a mother from the neighborhood spoke these quiet words at a site council meeting, reminding everyone at Bemiss why they do what they do: "When my daughter was born in 1992, I thought to myself, poor thing—she has to go to Bemiss. But now that she's a first-grader and thriving here, I feel like, Wow! She gets to go to Bemiss!"

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