By Ellen Icolari, Founder
Staten Island Community Charter School

We wanted to create a new kind of school in our community. One that would partner with parents and caretakers to educate and nurture our children. One that would deliver an exemplary K-8 education with an enhanced curriculum including a foreign language in kindergarten. One that would be accountable to its stakeholders.

Who were ‘we’? Neighbors. New parents, older parents, parents-to-be, grandparents and educators. As well as people from the community who heard about the effort and wanted to help. Together, we started a planning group that worked for more than three years before submitting our charter application, which was approved by the New York State Board of Regents in December, 2009.

School and home, working together

Our mission and vision were inspired, in part, by the work of Yale University psychologist John C. Comer. While working in the schools of New Haven, Connecticut, Dr. Comer discovered that children learn best when the school and home work together and support each other.

At Staten Island Community Charter School, we’re strengthening the link between school and home by offering parents, caregivers and families real responsibilities, real support, and an active voice in determining what this school is and does.

SICCS supports families’ parenting efforts, offering practical help, like holding literacy classes and workshops for parents who want to help their children with homework but can’t because they lack English-language skills.

Parents are part of our academic planning team, to strengthen their understanding of what we teach and how we teach, and to make teachers and administrators aware of their concerns, ideas and diverse cultural perspectives.

The SICCS Parent Team (PT)––which elects its own representative to the SICCS Board of Trustees––is our school’s strongest voice in the community and its most impassioned advocate in Albany.

Ellen Icolari is a retired New York City Department of Education teacher, teacher-trainer and program administrator. She has lived in St. George, Staten Island since 1977.

Part 2 of this piece will appear in a subsequent post.