Location

Bellevue School District
12111 NE First Street
Bellevue, Washington 98005

Contact

Contact: Rose Mayfield
Phone: 425-456-4636
E-mail: mayfieldr@bsd405.org

Parents for African American Students

Bellevue is a large urban district located 10 miles east of Seattle, Washington. The district has 15,207 students, and is diverse culturally, ethnically, and linguistically, with Asian students 21 percent of the student body, African Americans 3 percent, Hispanic students 8 percent, and white students 68 percent.

Bellevue School District offers families many opportunities to partner with individual schools. Says Newport High School's Principal Patty Siegwarth: "We work diligently to engage all our students and parents in the educational process. We invite parents to gatherings using invitations written in their native language and have interpreters available." Each school has a PTSA as part of the districtwide PTSA, and Newport High School has the Program Delivery Council—a decisionmaking body of families, teachers, students, and the principal. Some schools hold family forums at which family members can ask administrators questions about the curriculum.

A unique family-initiated district group is the Parents for African American Students. This grassroots organization formed when Rose Mayfield, a parent and employee in the district, brought some concerns to the attention of the new district superintendent. Many of these concerns had to do with the perceived lack of communication about important matters or events being conveyed to families of color. The superintendent asked if other families had the same concerns, and did the families network? "Because African-American families especially are few and spread out in the various schools, we had not at that point done much networking," says Mayfield. With the superintendent's support, several parents formed a group to begin networking between families, so that they could share information, and voice concerns collectively. About 30–50 families were invited to an initial meeting to share their concerns. The superintendent asked if he could attend the meeting, and the group agreed. "This was a very emotional meeting for the families," remembers Mayfield. "The superintendent was very receptive to us, and we were able to fill him in on the history of the families' concerns with the district."

After the meeting, a group of parents presented the superintendent with a list of their concerns. Although not all concerns have been resolved, the group members decided that they would do what they could to work on particular concerns. At the moment, the group is looking at ways to encourage students to stay in school, graduate, and consider higher education. One way to do this, they felt would be to have a fundraiser to provide money for college scholarships. The group partnered with several other parent groups in the district to do this. This kind of partnering, says Mayfield, worked really well because all the small groups could pool their resources.

The Parents for African American Students have also planned more networking social events for families, and especially for the children and young adults, who don't often see each other since they are spread throughout the district. An evening was planned where families played board games together; former students were invited to visit. "It was an amazing event," says Mayfield. "We plan to do more such events, such as movie nights a few times a month. We want to create an opportunity for families and students to connect."

Although the group was asked to join the district's PTSA, Mayfield explains that they declined the invitation because they wanted to address their own concerns first. In the past, explains Mayfield, "some of us didn't feel the PTSA needed us." This does, however, leave the door open for future collaboration between the groups for the advancement of all children in the district. Mayfield is very excited about the progress so far. "At first, our idea for the purpose of the group was to share information between us. If we could do just that much, it would be great; if we could do more, it would be even better."