Hmm. OK, I’ll do that. (Names and specifics removed from speech for semi-privacy purposes):
"Good evening, and welcome to what is hopefully the first of many [this organization] meetings. I want to thank everyone for coming tonight, and I want to particularly thank [this person] for securing and reserving this room for us this evening. I’d like to take a couple of minutes to introduce myself and explain what it is exactly that I am doing here tonight.
My name is ******, and I am the mother of a seventh-grader at [this school] in [this district]. My involvement in [this] district started when my daughter was a kindergartener at [this school]. Like most parents who get involved with their schools, I started out as a room mother and then gradually became more involved as my daughter progressed through the school system. I became interested in the way the district runs several years ago, when there was a referendum on the ballot and I read in a newspaper what the goals of the referendum’s passage were. At that time, I found it difficult to obtain clear information about the referendum, but I truly did not know who to ask for clarification. Since then, I’ve kept my eyes and ears open and tried to make sense of the day-to-day operations of the school district, but I did not think it necessary to pursue this in any depth. My daughter was doing well in school, and I saw no cause to question anything.
With recent news of the budget crisis, like many parents and taxpayers, I became highly alarmed. I have always maintained that a child’s education is first and foremost the responsibility of the parents, and now it has become clear to me that things were happening that I should have been aware of.
I have spent the last month and a half trying to compile a more accurate picture of this district and community, and while I know more now than I did then, I am still finding surprises. Every answer I find breeds another question. [This organization] was conceived when I hit yet another dead-end in my search for information. I am aware of other parent advocacy groups currently in place in this district, and several people have questioned why I feel another one is necessary. The answer to that is simple – I do not feel that there is any one group now that is readily accessible to all concerned parents in the district. The other groups all have their considerable merits and vital functions within the district, but there has not been a cohesive district-wide effort to unite all of us in what should be our common goal – that of educating our children to the very best of our ability. I think that in many cases we are duplicating one another’s efforts to get a handle on things and stumbling over one another. The **** organization is NOT intended to take an adversarial position with other groups, but rather to identify common goals and find ways to achieve those goals through collaboration, cooperation and communication.
To these ends, I have a couple of ideas.
First, our most immediate concern is to coordinating the volunteer efforts of parents to support the children and teachers in the schools. Each school, each classroom, may have different needs, and we need to determine how we can best meet those needs.
Second, I would like to see a thorough review of district revenue and expenditure to help us better understand how the district works financially – we need to know what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Let me stress that I am not looking for someone to blame, but like so many of you, I do not understand this, and I feel that we will not be able to make informed choices until we do.
Third, I would like to see an improvement in overall communication in the district – PTOs, advisory groups, the administration, the school board – ALL of us – can work more efficiently together if we all start on the same page and keep information flowing freely in all directions.
Fourth and finally, I would like to investigate how we can work with local businesses and community leaders to garner both financial and legislative support for our schools.
It is my hope that [this organization] can be a collaborative and comprehensive resource for parents, teachers, students AND the administration in this district. I would like to see an organization that is scrupulous about distributing accurate information, improving communication, and above all, working TOGETHER for our children."
Can I make this better? Is it rambling? Should I stay home and pretend to have the flu?
