Engage: To hire (someone) to perform a particular service; to pay for (help, services, etc.); to get and keep (someone’s attention, interest, etc.); to start fighting against.

Involve: To have or include (someone or something) as a part of something; to cause (someone) to be included in some activity, situation, etc.; to cause (someone) to take part in something; to cause (someone) to be associated with someone or something.

The last Tenet of the DCIP document is Tenet VI: Family and Community Engagement.

The Major Recommendation: “The district needs to create policy, systems and structures that promote a climate of belonging for families and communities as well as emphasizes a purposeful communication strategy that includes how information is disseminated to all families inclusive of all languages represented.”

There is a difference between family and community engagement and family and community involvement.

The State wants the district to promote a “climate of belonging for families and communities” not understanding that families and community members are the district, they do not belong to the district.

It is the recommendation of the State to provide information to the families in the district but not community members who pay the taxes that support the district.

The district has a history of excluding family and community concerns with individual school and district management while engaging them in “feel good” media opportunities.

Parents and community members have been and are still placated with educational rhetoric whose purpose is to silence the voice of dissent and still the waters of contention against a system of education that has, for decades, consistently failed to comply with New York State Constitution Article XI which states, “The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated.”

Who, at the State level is accountable for accepting this incomplete, irrational, and incoherent document as a relevant plan of action for this district?

If the State is not holding districts accountable for Constitutional compliance, who is holding the State accountable?

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