Looking back at our second and third years, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023
Listening to Our Community
In our second year and third years, all of our board members held 1:1 conversations in the community and participated in online Listening Sessions for charter families and educators representing several Puget Sound area charter schools. Grants from Tukwila Children’s Foundation and WA Charters helped us continue serving families and provide stipends to parents doing the work.
Founding Vice-Chair and community advocate Emily McLeod hosted and facilitated most of the group sessions, coaching all who joined from her own experiences raising concerns as a parent leader and staff member in her children’s charter school. Families and educators learned how to advocate for children’s academic needs and safe learning environments at all levels of the charter school system—from the classroom to authorizer meetings. With community permission, we amplified families voices at the administrative and school board levels when needed.
Building Community
We launched and co-hosted the state’s first Charter School Fair in November 2021 at Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) with WA Charters. Emily McLeod and current Secretary Tiffany Melligan-Smith were on site to represent WA FAB during the event. They were excited that several families came and enjoyed teaming up with community engagement staff from RVLA, Catalyst Public Schools, Summit Public Schools, Rainier Prep, and Impact Public Schools.
Growing Parent Leaders
During the 2022-2023 school year, founding Member-at-Large Abigail Tabason, now Executive Director of Still Waters, served Tukwila area charter and district public school parents and amplified their voices in her last year on our board. Founding Member-at-Large Lindsy Russell-Mitchell provided helpful guidance and advice as a founding Impact | PSE parent, charter legislative advocate and long-time active Tukwila resident.
Founding Treasurer and long-time charter advocate Dione Napoles-Loo began outreach to Spanish-speaking families, while Tiffany Melligan-Smith started gaining experience and knowledge about highly capable programs and supporting Twice-Exceptional (2E) students in charter public schools.
Supporting Families
Founding Member-at-Large and special education advocate Eric Willard began providing direct advocacy support—based on his experiences advocating for his own children in district and charter public school—for families of charter students with disabilities and families with other concerns. Most of the families he served were People of the Global Majority and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), multilingual, and/or immigrant caregivers and their students.
Eric’s direct support resulted in charter families, educators and staff being better informed about student and parent rights, and more comfortable with special education and Section 504 plan processes. Charter parents report being more able to fully participate in Individualized Education Program (IEP) and 504 plan meetings and are referring other families to us.
Advocating for Parent Participation
Board Chair and President Carla Rogenmuser continues to advocate for more authentic charter family involvement in the charter school renewal and expansion processes. In conversations with families and staff in the charter sector, and through our blog, The Charter School Novellas, and email newsletters she aims to keep informing and encouraging family and community participation in this area. Carla also redesigned and relaunched www.wafab.org with updated resources to better serve charter families and educators. Check out Know Your Rights, Know Your School, Know the System for more information.
Bit by bit we are beginning to see more families participate in the renewal and expansion processes with greater understanding of outcomes available during charter contract renewal and how to communicate what they’d like to see happen with their children’s schools.
In an exciting development, Carla and Summit Atlas parent Ya’Vonne Hubbard collaborated on the beginning framework of a family advocacy meeting toolkit, pulling together the wisdom the Family Advocacy Board has learned from the past few years of advocacy to share with other charter families and coming up with ways to learn from other families’ experiences. Seattle Foundation has generously given the Family Advocacy Board a $7,500 Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) grant to continue work on this project for the benefit of Tukwila charter families.
What’s Next
What’s next? This school year we’ll be increasing our support of families navigating special education and Section 504 plans, editing and hopefully piloting the first round of family advocacy meetings, building bridges between charter school communities, the Commission, and charter families, and creating the conditions for excellent family and teacher partnerships across the sector statewide, and seeking funds to build our organizational capacity and sustainability.
What are some things you can do?
Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation through PayPal or our website!
Sign up for our email updates here.
Sign up for WA Charters Text to Action alerts here if you’re interested in legislative advocacy.
Attend your local charter school’s monthly board meetings. Find your school and board meeting information here.
Attend the Commission’s hybrid meetings every other month. Here’s their schedule, location, and log in information.
Keep us updated on your experience in the charter sector!
