Parent Committees

There are numerous opportunities for parents to get involved with Durham Public Schools. Site-Based Decision-Making Committees, PTA/PTO groups, booster clubs and others involve parents in meaningful ways. The Board of Education and Superintendent have identified parent involvement as one of their key initiatives. POP (Power of Parents) is used as the overall theme for DPS involvement.

Site-Based Decision Making Committees:

The Board of Education shares the authority for making decisions affecting individual school programs with parents/guardians on school Site-Based Decision Making Committees at each school. These committees must have parent representation, and the focus of the group’s work is to improve the school’s programs. This committee is charged with developing the school’s School Improvement Plan that is required by the state and must be updated every three years.

Specifically the SBDM “takes responsibility for:

Assessing the current program in a school
Designing strategies for improvement
Providing necessary staff development
Using available resources to implement changes
Communicating decisions to the community, and
Continually evaluating the results of their decisions.

Parent Organizations:

DPS also welcomes parent participation through parent organizations in the schools. A number of DPS schools are a part of the state and national PTA organization. Still other schools have parent-teacher (and sometime student) organizations. Contact your school to find out about parent organizations and how you can get more involved.