Thank you to everyone who participated in our 9th annual Parent Leadership Conference on February 28, 2009 at DaVinci Middle School! Energy was high as we shared our experiences around working to improve our public schools for all our children.
Approximately 225 parents and community members participated in our conference. They heard from keynote speakers Carole Smith, the Superintendent of Portland Public Schools, and Jane Ames, Senior Policy Director: Education, Higher Ed and Public Safety, Office of the Mayor. We also heard from Dilafruz Williams, Co-Chair of the PPS Board of Education; Commissioner Amanda Fritz, City of Portland; and Anne Foster, Executive Director, Parents for Public Schools. Each participant also attended two of our 16 workshops, covering everything from school reorganization and legislative advocacy to basic parent involvement strategies and information about how to support student learning at home.
The participants gave us overwhelmingly positive feedback, but we’d like to know more. How did attending the Parent Leadership Conference benefit you? How will you apply what you learned to benefit your student, school, or community? Please complete our short survey to send us your feedback. We are especially interested in your reflections about how the event impacted you personally as an education activist, and in any ideas you have about how we can improve this annual event.
Thank you once again to everyone who joined our ongoing discussion about parent and community involvement in our public schools. If you missed the conference in 2009, please check our website regularly or sign up for our mailing list to be sure you hear about all our plans for next year’s conference!
We are grateful to the donors, sponsors, and supporters who made this event possible. Please join us in showing appreciation by supporting these businesses and organizations: