School pilots parent program

MANAGING EDITOR

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A new program at James Elementary School has a variety of community members jumping on board as volunteers.

The endeavor began with Portales First Baptist Church Pastor Dave McFadden seeking a Portales school the church could “adopt.”

“I told Mr. (Superintendent Johnnie) Cain we wanted to adopt a school, and we would do whatever we can do, whether providing volunteers for leg work or if you need money, whatever,” McFadden said, saying his church felt strongly about getting more involved with educational systems.

James Principal Deanne McKinney, who regularly struggles to work with a minimal budget, just happened to be trying to figure out a way to start a parent program at her school at the time.

McKinney said sometimes parents struggle to know how to deal with behavioral problems in their children, especially if it is unique circumstances, such as a single parent or grandparents raising their grandchild.

“We’ve always had parents going, ‘well, I don’t know what to do’ or ‘I need some help,’” McKinney said. “James school wanted to come up with some way we could get parents in (to the school). I was trying to find a way to get the social skills implemented through the school.”

That’s where First Baptist Church came into the picture. After Cain connected McFadden to the school, the church paid to provide all of the curriculum for James teachers to not only begin teaching basic social skills to their students but teach parents how to do the same at home.

McKinney said teachers began working on the program with students last week, starting with “following instructions.” This week, the school is working on “accepting no for an answer.”

McKinney said the school will talk to children about the skill of the week over the intercom throughout the week as well as teachers working on it with their classrooms.

“During our meeting with Dr. McFadden, I said that there was a parenting curriculum that I wanted to do, but we didn’t have the money, so he just jumped right on board and said what do you need. They’ve just really kicked in and helped,” McKinney said.

The “common sense parenting” program will teach parents through video and discussion sessions how to teach the same skills at home while also teaching them the difference between punishing and disciplining.

“We’re going to teach the parents curriculum that will reinforce what the teachers are teaching them at school. Just things like how to be polite towards others,” McFadden said. “It’s an effort to help school and parents partner to effectively educate children.”

The parent programs, which will be held every Tuesday from Sept. 15 to Oct. 20, will have the following sessions:

• Parents or teachers

• Encouraging positive behavior

• Preventing misbehavior

• Correcting problem behaviors

• Handling emotionally intense situations

• Helping kids succeed in school

“One of these sessions is on clear communication,” McFadden said. “Helping the child understand the difference between disciplining and punishing.

What would be the best way to describe this child’s behavior as a parent?”

Church members and school staff will be running the program with discussions and questions.

As incentive for parents to come and keep coming the whole six weeks, the program is providing dinner each Tuesday night before the program as well as providing daycare and a homework room for older children, according to McKinney.

Even Eastern New Mexico University groups have gotten involved, said McFadden, with ENMU’s culinary group providing the dinner two of the nights and the girls basketball team helping with childcare and homework tutors.

“We’re trying to give every incentive we can to keep them coming,” McFadden said, adding that there will also be prizes for parents each week with a larger prize the last week for those with perfect attendance.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he said.