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SEPTEMBER 2004

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.#

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