One of our core beliefs is that schools thrive by developing mutual respect and cooperation between teachers, students, and parents. We have great interest in supporting the substantive involvement of teachers and parents in planning and decision-making throughout our local school districts, Monroe County Community School Corporation and Richland Bean-Blossom.

Here are some issues that local parents have raised:

• Do students receive adequate recess, and does recess practice align with recess policy?
• How will MCCSC's decision to drop built-in time and compensation for parent-teacher conferences affect teachers' relationships with students' families, especially at the elementary level?
• MCCSC school board voting district representation is problematic. We are working with a map for electing school board representatives that was drawn in 1994. Since then, the population has grown unevenly in the different districts, so that they range from about 9,000 potential candidates in one district to 16,000 in another. Geographical areas define who can run, but voting is MCCSC-wide. Are we well-served by a system that is disproportionate and does not provide any slots for at-large candidates? In May of 2013, the board heard the evidence on the disproportion from one board member, but decided as a body to decline that board member's request to consider changes to the election districts. (See the Herald-Times article on this decision.)