March 2002

Interdependence

I would like to thank the search committee and the Poughkeepsie Day School Board of Trustees for inviting me to stay around for a little longer. I appreciate their confidence and good will and, of course, I am thrilled to have been selected. I am particularly grateful for the encouragement and support I received from many of you throughout the process of the search. Your spirit energized me. Your involvement energized the process. Thank you very much for your kind words and thoughts. I look forward to working closely with you throughout my tenure at PDS.

One of the themes of my tenure will be that of interdependence. It is a fundamental principle of a functioning progressive community, and it applies in many ways. In classrooms, we see it in the collaborative projects our children enjoy. Among our faculty, it is demonstrated clearly in our reflective dialogues on our teaching practices, our goals for students and our goals for ourselves as teachers. The concept of interdependence with parents has thus far been largely limited to relationships between individual families and the teachers of their children. I’d like to see us move beyond that.

The Poughkeepsie Day School Parents’ Association, a newly revitalized group on our campus, offers one kind of promise for expanding and deepening interdependence between parents, teachers, administrators and the board of trustees. Building on the activities of a small group of parents last year, this year we have developed the structure for an energetic, supportive and intellectually challenging parents’ organization. This is an important step in the life of our school. I applaud the group for all of its hard work and for the commitment and thoughtfulness it has brought to our planning sessions.

For a parents’ organization to be truly functional, all parents must become involved in some way; parent groups really don’t work if they draw only on the energy and dedication of a few. Parent participation can take lots of forms. Teachers need help with special projects and on field trips. The admissions office needs enthusiastic and well-informed volunteers. We need help from parents with special expertise in areas such as technology and community service and with the whole question of how to improve our diversity. Our development office needs leaders and helpers with a variety of fund-raising events. And, last, but by no means least, I need thoughtful, constructive input on a myriad of issues that impact the daily life of our school. Moving forward, I’d like to know that we have one-hundred percent participation in our parents’ organization. Please find the way you can be helpful, and volunteer. I’m counting on you!

A second way of fostering interdependence is through parent participation in the activities of the board of trustees. There are two ways to do this. The first is by full participation as a parent member of the board. This is an elected position, and one of high demand. It can also be enormously fulfilling. A second way of participating in board activities is by membership on one of several board committees. These groups address specific issues such as the education program, increasing our diversity and long range planning. Working with them is a good way to get your feet wet! Please try to do so.

This month, the board and the PDSPO are jointly sponsoring three opportunities to discuss ways in which parents can become involved in the formal organization of our school. Let me urge you to attend one of these meetings. Indeed, let me go one step further. Let me challenge you to find a way in which you can become meaningfully engaged. My goal is to have every parent active in the parents’ organization and engaged in the activities of the board of trustees. As members of a progressive community, we need to think about ways we can come together and help each other with our work. Progressive education can only survive within a truly progressive community. By becoming a stronger community, we can become a stronger school. We need one another!

Mary Jane Yurchak