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Reforming the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee
I'm on a little roll talking about minority student achievement this week. Today I thought I'd fill you in on an upcoming decision by the School Board to reconstitute the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee starting this fall.At our June 24th meeting we received a recommendation from the administration to create MSAAC Bylaws to restructure and revitalize the organization. Until now, MSAAC has had a steering committee made up of whoever showed up. Aside from MSAAC President Herb Bryan no steering committee member has children in Loudoun Schools, and Herb's youngest graduated last month, leaving no members with students at LCPS.
While I have sat in on two or three MSAAC steering committee meetings, I haven't ever been able to attend a regular MSAAC meeting because they take place on Thursdays, a night that I commit to my family. As it has been relayed to me though, the meetings are universally frustrating for everyone involved. No parent, administrator, civil rights activist or School Board member has ever relayed to me their satisfaction with an MSAAC meeting. Each has a different perspective on why things don't go well, but at least there is universal agreement that dramatic change is needed.
According to the briefing our Board received, it was MSAAC President Herb Bryan who suggested that MSAAC have Bylaws, and the administration responded by modifying the Bylaws of another successful group, the Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents (LEAP). Full disclosure: My wife Lori is LEAP's Vice President for Programs.
The basic structure is this: the Parent-Teacher Organization at each school selects two members to represent it as delegates to the monthly MSAAC meetings. These delegates elect officers from among themselves. The delegates are responsible to represent the concerns of their schools to MSAAC, and report back to their schools on the information they learn at MSAAC. The full text of the Bylaws are available online, starting on Page 80 of our June 24th Board Book (PDF).
Since they were published last month, I have received some feedback regarding the proposed Bylaws from minority advocates, and I hope to receive more. I expect that with some possible minor modifications the new Bylaws will pass at our August meeting, and an exciting new chapter will begin for MSAAC this fall.
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