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Calling all parents! MUI reaches out to get more parents involved with school
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, June 18, 2013
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
Teachers need the support of parents if they're going to provide the best possible education to their children.
Angela Dale of the Northern store presents Alayna Ningeongan with the junior high Outstanding Female Athlete award at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik in Rankin Inlet this past week. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo
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That's the message staff at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik (MUI) will be trying to get out to the community this coming school year.
Principal Jesse Payne said, overall, it was a good year at MUI.
He said the school has an awesome staff and overall group of students.
"We held a number of initiatives this past year, from the space station hook-up to the Missoula Children's Theatre and our feast among many others," said Payne.
"One big thing I want to put in everyone's mind as we head towards next year is our attendance.
"We want to get the message out to the community on how important it is for the kids to go to school.
"We have a lot of great attenders at MUI who do well at school and are very successful, but those who struggle to attend regularly don't do as well."
Payne said staff at MUI need the support of parents to try and get more kids to attend school regularly.
He said when parents do their part and make sure their kids get to school, the staff can do its part in making sure they get a good education.
Payne, who has been at MUI since 2004 with one year away in 2007-08, said staff members want to give the students the best program they can and do whatever it takes to make sure they're successful.
He said a parents group did start a program on Tuesday and Thursday evenings this past year, and it was quite strong for awhile.
"It fell off towards the end, but that happens sometimes with new programs.
"Parents are so involved with their kids when they start kindergarten; bringing them to school and picking them up every day, and coming to every event the kids are involved in.
"We need parents to be just as interested and involved at the high school level -- checking to see what their children are doing, that they've done their homework, are home at a reasonable hour on school nights, and getting the proper amount of sleep.
"I can't emphasize enough how much we need the same level of support parents give their kids in kindergarten."
Payne said, maybe, MUI needs to do more as a school to engage parents.
He said that's something staff will take a hard look at this coming school year.
"We aren't getting the involvement from parents we had in the past.
"I'd like to see more parents be involved with MUI and be part of what we do here at the school."
Payne said there's no shortage of school spirit at MUI.
He said MUI has a positive group of students and staff and, for the most part, the students get along well together.
"We do have bullying and some other issues we deal with throughout the year, but the majority of kids have really good relationships with their teachers.
"We had fairly good attendance this year when we held staff-student challenges and other events.
"It was really good to see staff and students come together and make the school environment feel like it's a fun place to come to.
"But we also have students who tell their parents there's no school on days we hold our events, so we'd like to see parents more aware because these events are a very important part of what we do to build school spirit and they're linked to curricular outcomes."
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