An autonomous, independent parent group has found a name and a voice. The United Parent/Community Organization (UPCO) has laid its foundation and is now building its structure. Its description: An organization of RCSD parents, families and supportive community members, organized to establish an independent, district-wide, collective voice for RCSD parents, families, and community members.
There was a great deal of respect for the ideas and concerns of every representative group at last night’s meeting. Brief comments were made, listened to, discussed, and voted on. There were no arguments. No one person or group dominated the discussion or the meeting. Parents and community members worked together to draft a set of operating principles, procedures/functions, and committees in order to fulfill its goals.
UPCO is committed to bringing together the many organizational parts that will build a vehicle strong enough to move the system of education toward becoming a successfully functioning organism that will actually educate our children and restore our community.
Rochester has always been at the forefront of change and we are beginning to live up to that reputation. We have begun to truly focus on the one important priority, our children.
Unity of purpose must bring us together. Our children’s future must be the common concern that allows us to put aside our personal agendas and egos to work together to build the vehicle of parent and community voice and get it moving toward the change that is necessary to insure educational success for our children.
At the budget hearings, many parents and community members came forward offering great ideas and suggestions that would create success for our district. Those ideas were lost on the Board but they should not be forgotten. Every stakeholder concerned with the successful education of our children must fuel the engine of change with their ideas, suggestions, and solutions. We must share our intellectual property in order to create a complete picture of educational health for our children.
We must educate ourselves in order to empower ourselves so that we can educate our children and empower them!
Join the Movement to Save Our Children!
