Viewpoint: Parents’ rights part of Taber’s run for MCPS Board of Trustees

“Jill, why are you running for school board?”

For families.

“The best interests of students” should drive every board trustee, but at its backbone are the families in which students are raised. “Parents’ rights” has become a hot-button topic, an idea that, like so much in our society, tends to polarize our communities.

It shouldn’t be this way.

Families of all ideological stripes put the most at stake in education: stand with the moms in the kindergarten line on the first day of school and you see the emotion of releasing one’s child to school. It comes with the reality that a large percentage of the day is now spent, not at home, but in a classroom – an enormous transfer of trust.

Our family has been blessed by teachers who love and care for our kids. I am forever grateful for their best efforts with Montana’s future.

Separate from the work in our classrooms is administrative level policy-making and our community’s discourse surrounding the ideologies of how schools should operate for “the best interest of students.”

These discussions include parents’ rights.

Parents’ rights do not end at the school doors, in the classroom, and especially not in the board room. We face important issues: the task of hiring a superintendent, the end of federal funding that has provided crucial help during the pandemic, learning loss, and the need to hire and retain teachers and school professionals in Missoula’s high-cost-of-living climate. Parent voice is crucial in those discussions.

Many Missoula parents feel their voice is unheard by the current board of trustees. They desire more balance of opinions and ideas. Many have become disenfranchised with the process of raising their concerns or offering their opinions.

We enter dangerous territory when parents are afraid to make a ruckus for their kids’ sakes.

When a parent’s fear of the repercussions for their kids, their relationships, or their career supersedes their willingness to advocate for their children, we need to recalibrate the system. If we cultivate a society that makes parents afraid to speak up, what will become of us?

Respectfully demanding accountability, conversation, and solutions that give parents and families a voice in school policy-making should not come at a great cost. What are we teaching our kids if we convey that the only acceptable solution is silence or that dissent comes at too big a risk?

Our community has buzzed this week about a worksheet titled, “Questions for Exploring Sexual Orientation,” allegedly used in a class a Sentinel High School. Mainstream local media didn’t cover the story until a parent made public comment during the April 12 MCPS board meeting (only on April 13 did the district issue a statement).

In a time where the national discourse is hyper-focused on education policy, MCPS would do itself and the community a service by being immediately (as soon as an issue comes to their attention) forthright about the veracity of the worksheet, the context in which it was used, and a precise explanation of what is being done to rectify the situation. With 31 percent of Missoula high school students proficient or above in math (Montana Office of Public Instruction), we must focus more time on academics and less time on suggestive and leading worksheets. The teachers working toward academic progress would appreciate that focus and support.

Lack of transparency only feeds the local rumor mill and spikes parent suspicions, harming teachers in our classrooms and the students they serve.

Missoula students, families, and teachers deserve an administration and board of trustees who refuse to veil the truth. Our kids deserve a community committed to its claim of forward-thinking: one devoted to inquisitive conversations that seek solutions rather than placing labels and stoking political divisions.

Jill Taber is a Missoula parent and candidate for MCPS Board of Trustees elementary/high school District #1.