My friend and blogger Morgan Pehme of Brooklyn Optimist is now a media representative for a group called, Power to the Parents Today he sent me a press release about an aggressive effort to recruit parents to represent their kids and their communities. This grou, Power to the Parents is inviting public school parents to run for a community and citywide education council.

If you are a public school parent in New York City, the Department of Education wants you! To run for your Community or Citywide Education Council, that is.

 

In an ambitious reinvention of the Community and Citywide Education Council (CEC)
elections, the NYC Department of Education (DOE) is reaching out to
public school parents across the five boroughs to encourage as many
parents as possible to become candidates for their local CEC. The CECs, which replaced New York City’s
School Boards in 2004, are parental advisory boards – one for each of
the City’s 32 school districts – that meet with the district
superintendent each month and advise the DOE on issues like zoning and
instruction.

In
response to parent feedback following the last set of elections in
2007, the DOE has simplified the process of becoming a candidate for
the CEC by setting up the website powertotheparents.org. 

Parents can sign up online to run in a matter of minutes.