Parents play the most crucial role in a child’s education, as a district, La Joya ISD continues to have initiatives in place that include the influence and opinions of the guardians of our students.
The Superintendent’s Parent Roundtable (established over 10 years ago) is one of those avenues where parents meet with the Superintendent of Schools (once a month) to exchange information, interests, suggestions, and truly have an opportunity for an open dialogue.
These meetings allow for a better understanding of parents’ point of view and concerns, and they give the district leader an exclusive insight about how parents feel about future projects.
Neighboring school districts, such as Hidalgo ISD and Edinburg CISD, have even borrowed the 10-year La Joya ISD Parent Roundtable concept and have also incorporated similar committees in those districts.
The first of the 2018-2019 roundtable meetings took place during the last week in September, with a healthy attendance of over 67 parents. Here, security concerns were the main topic of discussion as parents expressed their feelings about social media allegations that could potentially affect the education of the children in La Joya ISD.
At this meeting, parents suggested the implementation of stronger security measures such as, additional cameras, campus “Momma” Patrols, designated times for restroom breaks per grade levels, facilitate parent volunteer procedures to increase number of participants, and to consider adding more teacher aides in the classrooms.
Also, at this meeting, I asked for volunteers to form the LJISD Safe Schools Advisory Board(SSAB). As their primary goal, SSAB intends to advise/propose additional measures that will strengthen the existing safety and security operations within La Joya ISD to create safer schools and facilities.
The newly-formed SAAB team consists in bringing together the following groups of people:
- 6 parent volunteers
- 5 administrators: Superintendent, Chief of Police, Assistant Superintendent, Executive Director for Student Services and Director of Safety
- 3 principals (one from each level – elementary, middle, and high school)
- 3 teachers (one from each level – elementary, middle, and high school)
- 3 community members
- 6 high school students
Their first official meeting was held on Thursday, October 11, 2018.
Already in place, the La Joya ISD Police Department provides many safety measures for the students and staff in the district. Programs such as the LJISD Crime Stoppers, the 1st Offender Program, Raptor access control systems at ALL schools, new and top-of-the-line surveillance systems, police and security officers, and the ongoing contribution of the School and Community Safety Task Force Committee.
These, along with a district-wide team of 32 security and 61 police officers, the district has kept (and will continue to keep) safety a top priority.
