The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Hamilton envisions, creates district community council By Steve Enders Since he came to the Fremont Union High School District last year, Superintendent Joe Hamilton has wanted to create a committee that would get more parents involved in district decisions. Two weeks ago, Hamilton announced to the board of trustees that he would spearhead the formation of a District Community Council, which will strive to help communication flow through the district a little easier. The group hasn't formed yet, and Hamilton said he's just now starting to contact all the potential players to gauge their interest in such a program. It could meet for the first time after the new year. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. "It seems to be a popular idea," Hamilton said. "I think we're just going to do it." "Its purpose is to have a place where issues and concerns of cross-district issues can be discussed," he said. "If there's a program or a procedure taking place that people are concerned about, then those things can be brought up and discussed." Hamilton said that he envisions the group meeting every six to eight weeks, and to include representatives from the school site councils, parent/teacher associations and representatives from groups such as the Asian American Parents Association. He said he'd like to invite representatives from the feeder districts, including the Cupertino Union School District and Sunnyvale School District. Hamilton sees De Anza College represented as well. Various district staff members from budget, textbook and curriculum committees will also be available at the meetings to answer questions and take advice from the group. "Elementary districts tend to be a little closer because of the nature of the way they function," he said, adding that it's difficult to get that cohesiveness in the Fremont Union High School District. "North Sunnyvale is a long way from Los Altos. It's harder to bring folks together," he said. As of last week, only the schools' PTA presidents had been contacted, but Hamilton was planning on notifying more people about the group's formation. New Lynbrook High School PTA president Karin Costa thinks the idea is one whose time has come. "The Fremont Union High School District has always been labeled as having a communication problem," she said. "This will help open that up." Costa said that in her experience, relaying important information from the board level to the parents is like a game of telephone--details get dropped or changed each time the message goes through another person. This will help eliminate that, Costa said. With the responsibility on the District Community Council, Hamilton also sees a possibility for parents to springboard into trustee positions. "There's not a natural way for [community] members to become leaders," Hamilton said. "The District Community Council could develop leaders--people who might get interested in becoming a candidate. This is a place where they could get to know some of the issues." [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 14, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.