Twice a year Steller holds an All Community Meeting. These meetings are to conduct important business relating to the education of students at our school. They are also often a time to get to know one another. All Community Meetings are just that – meetings for the entire school community. Attendance of students, parents and staff are what make these meetings worth our participation.

On January 12th the 2nd All Community Meeting of the year was held. There was very light attendance of students. Parents made up the bulk of the group. I am wondering what happened to the All Community Meetings of 5 years ago when my daughter was a 7th grader? Teachers gave students a night off of homework to encourage their participation. Most all of the staff would attend and they would take up 2 complete rows in the room. To kick off the meeting, staff would introduce themselves and parents who hadn’t been in yet to meet their student’s teachers could put a face with a name.

I’m wondering what it would take to get all of Steller’s staff, at least one adult from each student’s family and most all of the students to these 2 meetings a year? Is it really asking too much to request we all participate in 2 meetings a year?

I’m hoping that by raising awareness, we can increase participation. Perhaps there was a communication breakdown for this meeting. In any case, I urge each member of the Steller community to examine his/her reasons for not attending and consider making this event a priority for your family. More voices, representative of the school community, can only serve to make us richer in our dialogue and decision making.

Submitted by Cheryl Childers, Steller parent