Interview with Jennifer Greenblatt
Department
of Ed Creates New Division: Parent Support Office
by Sybil Maimin
"I wanted this job even before they created it," explains
Jennifer Greenblatt, the liaison for Manhattan District 2 in
the year-old Parent Support Office in the Department of Education.
As a parent leader at the elementary, middle, and high school
levels (executive board member, PTA president), "I recognized
a need for the office and I guess Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor
Klein did too." In her present position, she provides
information, engages in problem solving, and stays on top of
issues in the educational institutions in her district. Working
mostly on the phone, she offers support to parents and the
parent-coordinators that are now present in every school. She
also speaks with principals, teachers, and anyone else who
needs her help. Generally, she is called in when a problem
cannot be resolved within the institution. Two days a week,
she visits schools with the goal of seeing each 3 to 4 times
a year, because, "That's where it's happening." The "nicest
part of the visits", she confesses, is 'being invited
to something, such as a student performance," a break
from issues.
The office is busy. Problems range
from personal ones such as a request from anxious parents-to-be
to help select a school in the district for their as-yet
unborn child to finding alternate classroom spaces for students
displaced from PS 151 after it was closed due to physical
problems. Greenblatt works with PTAs and PAs as well as school
leadership teams and provides guidance on relationships with
the community and elected officials. As a parent and former
parent leader, she feels eminently qualified for the job. "I've seen how it works. I know how to help
someone because I've lived through it." Before the creation
of the position of Parent Coordinator, problems were brought
to the PTA. She believes the presence of the coordinators in
the schools and the availability of district Parent Support
Offices is a very positive step. The goal is to engage parents
in their children's education. Involvement can take many forms:
from baking brownies for a fund-raiser to helping with homework
to assisting on a class trip to attending a workshop. And now
parents know that the system recognizes their importance and
has in place the apparatus to give them information, help,
and support.#
