Insideschools.org has learned about an overlooked bit of bureaucrat-ese that deserves wide exposure -- and considerable challenge as well, especially given the Chancellor's recent endorsement of parent involvement -- see powertotheparents.org -- and his administration's long record of shutting down similar channels under the guise of school reform and restructuring.
Chancellor's Regulation 660 prohibits ordinary public citizens, not to mention their elected representatives, members of the wider community, and advocates of every stripe, from attending Parent Association meetings unless express permission for their visit has been granted by a prior vote of the entire PA . That's right: The whole parent association should approve any potential guests or speakers ahead of scheduled PA meetings. Here's a snippet from the reg, and a link to a pdf of the whole text (see page 54, II D for the section below).
"Other than the principal or his/her designee, outside observers and speakers are prohibited from attending unless the PA bylaws specifically allow attendance by invitation of the association after the vote. A PA must vote to invite an outside speaker for a specific purpose at a particular meeting."
What this would mean, in practice, is that attendance at PA meetings would be strictly and completely controlled by the PA itself, excluding any and all outside observers, including prospective parents, expert speakers, consultants and others interested in the city's schools. It means that you, as a parent, can't drop in on a PA meeting at a school you're considering for your child, because you're not yet part of that school community. Any guests or speakers must be approved by prior vote, after which an invitation may (or may not) be extended. This doesn't seem, on face value, like a strategy that's designed to increase parent participation. This seems the total opposite, a directive that's designed to stifle communication and profoundly inhibit dialogue.
Whether the regulation violates state education law, Section 414(1)(c) which permits public access to school property that's used for "social, civic, and recreational meetings" is, as the wonks say, above my pay grade. (But worry not, the NYCLU is learning more about the regulation, too. ) And whether Parent Associations will actually bar speakers and uninvited public from their meetings seems highly debatable. One activist PA president listed more than 25 guests and speakers who have enriched school meetings this year alone -- and invited the Chancellor to fire him for violating the regulation.
The core question: What is the DOE trying to prevent, in this regulation? And following on that, if the DOE and Chancellor Klein actually intend to increase the voice of parent-stakeholders in school reform -- as they say they do -- how does shutting people out of public meetings achieve that purpose?
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