The Kingston City School District’s Board of Education is considering reviving its Parent Engagement Committee, but some district officials and trustees shared concerns about issues that led to its unofficial demise.
During the school board meeting held on Wednesday, February 5, superintendent Paul Padalino described an atmosphere of organized chaos at the parent meetings brought by representatives of a single unnamed school.
“We were very equitable and conscientious of our district as a whole and invited a PTO president and vice-president for each building to be part of that group,” Padalino said. “And that was not respected by members of the group. What it turned out to be was about ten members from one school building and all the other members decided not to do it anymore because they were basically marginalized in that process. That’s why I stopped doing it.”
Padalino and some trustees said those issues were largely contained in committee meetings, but said regular school board meetings had also been targeted by the group. Over two meetings of the board of education last November, George Washington Elementary parents chided the district for holding closed decision-making meetings in violation of Open Meetings Law, of fostering a dismissive environment meant to discourage dialogue and of failing to support the Montessori program in their children’s school.
At the November 20, 2024 meeting of the school board, Kingston Teachers Federation president Bonnie Van Kleeck said the George Washington representatives had ensured focus remained solely on their grievances.
“There are people that are on that committee, it appears to me that are looking out for the needs of one building and not the entire district, and because they didn’t get what they wanted, they’re calling foul play,” Van Kleeck said. “And I don’t think that’s fair to all the people, all the parents and all the administrators that are on that committee who were doing all this hard work and giving up their own time.”
Whether the Parent Engagement Committee will return in full remains to be seen, but Padalino has mixed feelings about it.
“If the board wants to do it, please do,” he said. “I’m not going to be chairing a group that will not respect simple courtesy, simple structure, simple rules of order. I’m not going to sit on it.”
He added that he believes a committee which fosters open dialogue between parents, district officials, and the board of education is valuable, adding that it had worked effectively for eleven of his 13 years as superintendent. But he said recently it had gone off the rails due to the behavior of some parents who are organizing to overtake the meetings.
“When I send out team invites to people and it’s shared with hundreds of people who then again show up into a meeting that’s supposed to be equal opportunities for every building and turns into not that at all, I won’t do it,” he said. “If you want to direct me to do it, I’ll do it. But it’s going to be very short-lived if people can’t just operate in a simple manner.”
School board vice-president Suzanne Jordan agreed.
“It is unconscionable and I will not support the idea that people can come and be disrespectful because people don’t get their way or feel that the only answer is the answer that they want to hear,” she said. “Whatever meetings we have as a district, I think should end as soon as somebody crosses a line when they are not respecting the process … And that is not acceptable ever and for some reason the whole country thinks it’s okay now, and it’s not okay.”
Some members of the school board felt a Parent Engagement Committee would help open dialogue in ways the district currently doesn’t allow for. Parents can write letters, or speak at meetings of the board of Education, but neither option guarantees a response.
“I do think unintentionally as a board in my time here we’ve done more and more to insulate ourselves from away from the public,” said Trustee Marc Rider. “I think we need to get back to having functions where we are out there listening to parents more again as Dr. Collins said they can write us letters they can come and speak for two minutes on certain topics at a board meeting, but we’re not engaging.”
The district used to host Coffee and Conversation, where district administrators and school board members would meet informally with the public. Those events were canceled due to low turnout.
Trustees agreed to continue the discussion, with some hoping to see a return to a more open dialogue between the district and its constituents, and with it a respectful atmosphere to allow all schools to be fully represented.
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