Parent + Guardian Participation at Westland
I’ve been thinking a lot about parent participation at Westland. Having served on the Board of Trustees ad hoc “Parent and Guardian Participation Committee” this year and gearing up for Westland’s 75th anniversary, I’ve been extra attuned to the vital role parents at Westland have always served, serve, and will continue to serve in order for the School to thrive.
I think back to the Children’s Book Fair and those parents on campus who were creating gorgeous and clever bulletin boards, organizing the selection, finalizing the check-out process, and supporting children. Or the staff appreciation luncheon, where deliciousness and care abounded. The amount and quality of the fare was humbling. And then the other version of *fare* – the Fair! Those workdays and all that goes into the Fair, a culmination of joy. Insert your committee name here _______ ! And your hot lunch team:_______! (And you bakers!) About a month ago, a small group of parents, Jennine, and I went to California State Northridge’s Special Collections Department where Westland’s archives are housed. We were all struck by the then-and-now quality of parents being a vital component of Westland School.
When I reflect upon this then-and-now quality, I am compelled to go back into my own childhood and think about the ways my parents were connected to my life, beyond our home. I don’t know if it’s thinking about how I want my children to describe me and my parenting someday (!) or just simply the passing of decades of time, but recently, I have been inspired to lift up the beautiful, positive memories connected to my parents' involvement in my life. I’m aware of the big and small acts my mom and my “baba” got right. So very right, actually.
I played a lot of fast pitch softball growing up. My high school team was quite good with a combination of stellar pitching, a lineup that could hit from top to bottom, and excellent coaching. We set school records. My senior year we had mysterious, inspirational signs with awesome quotes and Ted-Lasso-esque words hung up before home games in our dugout. These signs were replenished weekly. Not until my senior season was over did I find out that the people behind these awesome signs were my mom and my baba. I had no idea. None of us did. I wasn’t embarrassed when I found out, just tickled.
What I didn’t think about was “How did they do this? When did they do this?” My mom worked full-time-plus as the cashier at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Jackie’s Fish and Chips Restaurant. My dad was deemed permanently disabled by the time I was in sixth grade. (While he could walk with the aid of a neck brace and cane, he was in chronic pain.) That status, as you can imagine, provided a whole host of challenges for him and in some ways all of us. So when I look back on the dugout decorations, I’m even more appreciative with my adult lens. They were busy, and they were stressed. They were constantly making ends meet. When I was younger, I was aware of the parents who were “there” more, and who did more. And, I am acutely aware that my parents decorated my team’s dugout weekly! They did what they could basically.
Also when I look back, I realize what an integral part my parents, and all of the parents that year, played in supporting my team to have the winningest season in school history. In front and behind the scenes, our parents boosted us and gave us confidence.
I played basketball too, and I remember my parents getting permission to have the team come over at lunchtime to serve us Stouffer’s lasagna, Greek salad, and garlic bread on a playoff day. I recall all of the little-but-big acts too: my mom typing my papers for me (on an electric word processor) as I wasn’t a touch-typer yet, the bringing of baked goods to school events, the driving, and the attending of events, be it concert, game, banquet, play, recital, etc. My mom and baba were there as much as they could be. And because they were literally and physically there, I knew my mom and baba were there-there for me.
These are meaningful memories, demonstrating my parents’ connection to my life, at school and through extracurriculars. As I recollect these memories, I am aware of a sense of appreciation, sweet fondness (for them and those experiences), and their unconditional love. These feelings invite me to extend my emotional reflection to a more cognitive reflection to the here and now. I consider the ways I show up for my own children as a parent myself and as an educator at a school where parent involvement is a core tenant. My analysis leads me to understand the imperativeness of parents and guardians engaging in the lives of children.
I want our children to have the knowledge, coupled with the confidence, that a parent’s love and presence in their life is steady, even when there are demands of work and real stresses of life that are present. This knowledge-and-confidence combo is essential in the elementary years; it helps to create a strong attachment in preparation for a child’s individuation process to come in the upcoming middle school years. (Something I regularly say is, “Perhaps the hardest time to be human is 11-14 years old.”)
In typical adolescent development, teenagers and pre-teens will “separate,” so to speak, and it is not uncommon for some to do so quite meanly. They will tell their parents they don’t want them or like them, even though they do in fact want them and like them. The separation is “easier” and makes more sense if there is tension. So…having an early-years foundation of love and trust – and the knowledge that their parents were there and are there – is essential to the pre-teens and teens for their adolescent phase of development to go as well as possible. Having a village of parents is important too.
Psychologist, author, and parenting expert Michael Thompson talks about how imperative it is for children to have “multiple concentric circles of influence.” A teenager will make more stable choices if they know that they have multiple layers/levels/spheres of adults who know them and care about them. “The village” so to speak. When children see us adults connected, present, and engaged, they get to experience these concentric circles. I believe children view Westland as one of their key villages. One of their circles.
Westland relies on – and was originally built on – the belief that parents serve a crucial role in their children’s life and in school life. Children thus make this connection: When my parents care about my school, my friends, and my activities, my parents care about me. Westland was built on this understanding. I think Westland was also built on a parent’s love not just for “their'' child, but all children. Whenever we interview an alumni in preparation for the 75th, be it from the 50’s, 70’s or 90’s (pick any and all decades), they bring up what their parents did without us asking.
From the earliest piece of archival documentation that I know of (from 1949), parents’ integral role to the history and philosophy of the School is plainly stated: “The Westland School. A non-profit organization, was started by a group of parents…To each child, the participation of his parents is an obvious and continuous fact. Parents contribute their skills and interests at practically every level of the school. In turn they receive guidance and stimulation through lectures, group meetings and individual conferences.” There is so much to notice here. What stands out is the reciprocity of the experience of being a parent at Westland – what is received through the participation. It is a meaningful exchange. One current Group Six parent told me, “I don’t know who’s benefited more from this experience, my child or me.”
Something we’ll add to the archives this year is our 100-page Self Study as part of a recent accreditation process this past school year. We invited five visiting educators to campus for almost a week, holding up a mirror for us to reflect upon where we can improve, and what strengths stand out. One such strength is our parent participation model. (In fact, one of the visiting Heads of School and I are meeting soon with her PTA president because they are exploring shifting to Westland’s model!)
I went through the study and pulled excerpts that my colleagues and I wrote last summer that demonstrate what the home-school partnership means to Westland – and to us. It’s a bit of a love letter, perhaps, to any parent or guardian reader. Gratitude for the participation – be it Board service, voting for board members, serving as a board member, bringing in a “family fare” item and so on.
Westland’s Accreditation Self-Study
From the Section: Westland School History:
From the beginning, Westland’s governing bylaws were cooperative in nature. The School would be owned by a non-profit corporation whose voting members would be parents and teachers, thus guaranteeing promoting a democratic unified spirit which would be of greatest benefit to children… Parents and teachers were and are committed to the democratic process. Parent/Guardian education remains an important way the School works to maintain consistent expectations, where the values in the home and school environments are meaningfully aligned. There has always been a close camaraderie and mutual respect between parents and staff. In 1965, Westland moved to its current location. A small group of parents mortgaged their houses to purchase the land. Also at that time, a parent sold one of her houses to plant the seed money for the first staff retirement fund. School enrollment grew to 130 students and successfully stabilized at that size.
Distinctive Identifying Features of the School: There are a number of important and unique aspects of Westland that make the School distinctive. One of the most important, besides the previously mentioned progressive pedagogy, social studies-based curriculum, our small size, and regrouping, is the parent participation requirement. Parents are required to sign a contract agreeing to four defined areas of work during the year: committee participation, work hours, serving on a shift at the Spring Fair, and serving on a Hot Lunch Team. These tasks bring parents and guardians together across grade levels to do work that the School needs in order to thrive. This work is sometimes considered the “glue” that holds us together and builds community.
How do current parents contribute to a positive school climate and strengthen the sense of community on which institutional health depends? Westland’s institutional health depends on parents and guardians contributing to the positive school climate and strong sense of community. Parents and guardians have many opportunities to contribute their care, creativity, time, and expertise…Each family has a role to play in a committee which helps serve the School. There is consideration of how much a parent or guardian can contribute in regards to their time and ability in all the mentioned areas. In addition to the community involvement of committee work, parents and guardians are invited to participate, share, or visit within the classroom, supporting a welcoming presence within the Group. In addition to parent committees, parents and guardians are required to serve on a Hot Lunch committee, where on Fridays teams of parents make lunch for the students and staff. They are asked to support campus beautification as well as chaperone field trips.
This regular involvement supports the vision that we all learn from, support, and care for our School together. The children see and experience parents and guardians in a way that emphasizes the idea that we all play a role, and need one another. At a cultural level, parents and guardians are a source of encouragement and offer abundant and powerful appreciation for the work that the Staff and teachers on campus do. Parents and guardians can so often be a buoying presence through such traditions like staff appreciation luncheon and the annual community gift tradition. Parents, too, provide such wonderful appreciation and feedback to Staff and teachers throughout the school year. During COVID, not having parents on campus, invited us to really understand how important their presence is to the positive school climate and how important the currency of conversation is to our ongoing relationship building.
Cite concrete examples—major events, achievements, crises, and/or challenges—where the character of the school community clearly showed itself. As stated in other sections, the School is built around making a commitment to the community (as stated in the mission). Parents and guardians come together on a regular basis to make Westland events special, meaningful, and arguably magical every year. Be it the Fair, the Annual Giving Dinner, the Parent Book Fair – the full community of parents, guardians, staff, and children – shows itself with warmth, connection, creativity, and care. It is often in times of crisis, or when the community is tested in some way, that constituents really show their true commitment and love for Westland. Two examples of community members coming together to protect and care for the School are: During the Getty fire of 2017, parents came in the very early morning to evacuate the chickens and hose down the roofs of all of the buildings. When the 2023 Board Retreat was interrupted on a rainy Saturday morning by a massive fallen tree in the front parking lot, Board members and administrators worked all morning to clean, call service people, and dig holes in the ground to tend to a water main break. Having canceled the retreat, we delivered our catered lunch for the Board retreat to our local fire station.
What emerged from and was substantiated by the self-study process as the school’s areas of greatest strength? The standout strength that emerged from our self study process is Westland’s people: The teachers and Staff center children and child development, the mission and philosophy, and our community…The parents and guardians work together across multiple committees and contexts, helping to create an interwoven, interdependent sense of community. Westland’s Board has made marked progress over the years at the fiscal, generative, and strategic levels. It is notable. The children of Westland are joyful, present, curious, helpful, and hardworking. Through their work and play, they are learning how to use their minds and hearts well, make meaningful connections, and ask questions that inspire future learning.
That last section – that the children of Westland are joyful, present, curious, helpful, and hardworking and that through their work and play, they are learning how to use their minds and hearts well, make meaningful connections, and ask questions that inspire future learning. I actually don’t think this joy, this connection seeking, this curiosity would be present if it weren’t for the ways parents and guardians at Westland show up, literally and figuratively.
Going back to 30 years to 1994 and remembering the dugout of my senior year softball team, I recall one of the signs vividly. It’s the only sign where I remember the exact message, partially because my dad drew a shaky, hilarious bumble bee on it: “Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.”
Sometimes I think Westland, “aerodynamically,” so to speak, shouldn’t be able to fly. We are very small. We do things in ways that other independent schools just don’t do. (I recall many-a-time at national and statewide independent school conferences where there is audible gasps when we share that and parents democratically VOTE in other parents on the Board.) Parents come in on their breaks to feed chickens and clean up after their very real mess. Parents feed the school each Friday. There’s an adult book fair, not just a kid one! These practices (and more!) are virtually unheard of.
This isn’t your typical LA Independent School parental experience. And yet, because of these exact ways parents show up and serve, Westland goes on flying, and the children do too. Confidently, securely, joyfully, and vitally.