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Since taking over for Judith Johnson earlier this year, new Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton has teamed with the Board of Education in an effort to regain the city’s trust and begin building ties between the community and the much-maligned school district.
At the beginning of the academic year, school board President Elias Gootzeit announced the district would host a series of weekend conferences, once or twice a month, when members of the community and officials with the district could discuss the issues Mount Vernon faces.
According to Gootzeit, the conferences provide the district with a unique opportunity to interact with the entire community to confer about what problems plague the city and how they can best go about fixing them.
“These conferences are an opportunity to engage our community and begin important conversations that will address some of the inequalities that students and residents of Mount Vernon experience in their day-to-day lives,” he said.
Past conferences have addressed the schools budget, the future of the district and the audit committee, among other issues facing the district and schools. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, district officials will be at Longfellow Elementary School for a conference on “de-criminalizing parenting behavior.”
Other scheduled Saturday conferences include:
- Feb. 28: “Should legal resident immigrants have a right to vote in Mount Vernon School District elections?”
- March 14: Dr. Suess’ ‘Horton Hears a Who? reader theatre.
- April 18: Budget presentation.
- May 16: Second budget presentation and a school board debate to be chaired and organized by the PTA and PTA Council.
- June 19: “Who owns the public schools?”
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