In this episode we spoke with Sheree Gibson and NeQuan McLean, two extraordinary parent leaders from Brooklyn about School Leadership Teams, District Leadership Teams, Community Education Councils and other sanctioned avenues for parent power in New York City, where the mayor has ultimate control over the whole system. Remember that mayoral control expires in 2022 and stay tuned until the end of the episode when we talk about how NeQuan's CEC is working on a lawsuit against the city to get information about school reopening preparations.
We encourage every parent leader to submit a Freedom of Information Law request about their school and district's reopening plans an preparations. Per NeQuan: "Ask for the information nicely first, and if they don't give it to you, FOIL." See below for the sample.
"A lot of folks don't understand the strength and the power of SLTs" -NeQuan McLean
"PAs and PTAs are in the midst of electing leadership and electing SLT parent members this month, so please, if you have an interest, get involved! Go to the meetings! Go to the election." -Sheree Gibson
"Mayoral control do not work. We call on the legislators to put together a commission to look at school governance in the City of New York. If we put all voices together we will be able to come up with a system that will work and benefit all." -NeQuan McLean
"If I had a 100 people come to [School Leadership Team meetings], the conversation would be different. If you go and it's all about event planning, the simple question is, 'Aren't you guys supposed to be working on your [Comprehensive Education Plan] goals? What is our goal as an education community?" - Sheree Gibson
Here are a few links to rules and regs that we mentioned:
- Commissioner's regulation 100.11 (school leadership and district leadership teams)
- Chancellor's regs 655 (school and district leadership teams)
- Guidance from April 2020 on how to hold SLT and DLT meetings
- Your Schools Your Voice. This 2012 report by Teachers Unite & the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center gives the context around mayoral control and some good explanation about the current parent governance structures.
District 16 used the following letter to request information about school reopening preparations. Feel free to use this for your own school or district! Below is the response that prompted the lawsuit.
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