5C Parent Leaders Raise Community Awareness

Hello Contra Costa County Community,

Around Contra Costa County, there are charter schools providing access to a quality education and a supportive environment for students and families. Our problem is we haven’t always shared our own story about what makes our schools great. This fall, family leaders representing six charter school communities organized school assemblies to bring families together and build community and power. Families are building skills to become more effective advocates for their children while also learning more about the current challenges charter schools face in Contra Costa County. Here is a closer look at the family assemblies that were organized by the Parent Leadership Teams at Caliber Beta Academy and Making Waves Academy.

Maribel

Caliber parent Gondica Nguyen stood in front of the room with other parent leaders, all wearing blue shirts identifying them as the “Leadership Squad,” and looked out at the crowd of 80 people.

She has been a part of the Caliber Beta Academy community for nine years, sending two children to the school. She figured she knew 80 percent of the crowd, and when she spoke she felt like she was talking to her friends. Only with a lot of urgency.

Though Caliber is not up for renewal this year, Gondica knew from experience that a charter renewal is an important time to bring the school community together and it also can be a very challenging process. And parents play an essential role in keeping a school open.

Caliber Beta families and students packed into the school's multipurpose room for the parent-led assembly.

“I was here the last time we had to renew (the Caliber charter),” Gondica said later in an interview. “And I know the climate is more contentious now than it was a few years ago. So I want to make sure that my kids, and all the other kids, have a school to go to.”

“I’m sure the school districts would love to have (Caliber students) back, but when we asked our parents what they would do (if Caliber closed), not many people were going back to their neighborhood district school,” Gondica continued. “That was the least desirable option.”

Gondica and other parent leaders at Caliber worked with 5C to organize an assembly that brought together other school families to get to know one another, build community, and talk about what is at stake for charter schools in Contra Costa County.

Parents and students shared what they love about their school, and what can be improved.

The Caliber assembly was entirely facilitated by the school’s newly formed parent leadership team. The parents started meeting during the summer and then participated in 5C’s Family Leadership Institute, where 62 parents from six different charter schools in Contra Costa County received leadership development and organizing training.

The 80 people who attended the Caliber assembly included parents, students, grandparents, staff, board members, CEO Terrence Johnson and parents from other 5C schools. Edith Saavedra-Acevedo, a Caliber founding parent, staff member and parent organizer at Caliber, said she was proud of turnout and the organizing work of the other parents.

“We know that we are strong in numbers,” Edith said. “It is also important to highlight that there were a lot of parents here who did not know that we are a part of this coalition, and why it’s important to be strong. And what it means, to be strong.”

Making Waves Academy parent leaders.

Three weeks prior, Making Waves Academy, similarly had a full house when 77 parents and students showed up to their assembly to voice enthusiasm for the school, gave suggestions for improvement and voiced a real concern about recent anti-charter messages that might threaten their children’s school.

Looking back on their successful effort, Felicia Selva, a Making Waves parent leader, said “One of the things that motivated us is that over the summer all of our parent teams across the 5C coalition reached out to local and county education board members to ask for a meeting and for the most part these requests went ignored. We realized that next time it can’t be just a few of us asking to be heard but 100 or 500 and then maybe we’ll get a different result.”

Assemblies were organized by parent leaders at each of the schools that make up 5C: Voices College-Bound, Summit Public Schools, Richmond College Prep, Caliber Beta and Making Waves Academy.

The Making Waves Academy parent-led assembly.

When asked whether she thought the assemblies were a success Maribel Gonzalez, 5C’s Executive Director, said “We measure success by whether the organized parents are more numerous, better informed and stronger than before. Our winter 5C Family Leadership Institute is now at capacity, the morale and enthusiasm of the existing leadership team couldn't be higher, and the feedback from attendees shows that they now understand the urgency of organizing to protect and ensure their children's opportunities.”

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