B-CC hosted its annual Back to School Night this past Thursday, September 5th. The event aimed to give parents and caregivers better insight into the day-to-day school life of their students as well as the chance to form connections with their student’s teachers. Emerging discussions around equity and new school-wide policies have made Back to School Night more pivotal than ever.
B-CC Assistant Principal Deberry Goodwin explained, “Back to School Night almost serves as a homecoming for parents, in the sense that they get to reintroduce themselves to school, get a chance to briefly meet their student’s teachers, and get an idea of what their student’s experiencing or what the expectations are on any given day.”
With student ambassadors and members of B-CC administration providing directions where needed, parents and guardians were given the chance to experience their student’s class schedules firsthand. “They get to traverse the steps of B-CC—at an accelerated rate because whereas a student might get forty-three minutes to get themselves ready to do that walk again, the parents are getting ten to twelve,” said Goodwin.
Around ten minutes were allotted to each class period, and six minutes of travel time were given in between each of those classes. During each class, teachers spent around three to five minutes presenting information about new school-wide activities and policies—key points included attendance guidelines, stricter Personal Mobile Device (PMD) expectations, and student ID scanning—before spending the rest speaking about the individual class or classes they teach.
Before Back to School Night’s events kicked off, amidst the background buzz of food trucks in the bus loop and the B-CC drumline and jazz band in the main atrium, parents and caregivers were given the chance to visit tables set up by various in-school and out-of-school organizations, classes, and clubs. B-CC Parent Ernst Heinrich noted, “[I look forward to] hustling to get from class to class, trying to figure out the layout of the building, trying to meet the teachers and ask relevant questions—if you have time! Typically I’ll ask about the syllabus, prerequisites, [and] rigor.”
Another parent, Alan Blackman expressed, “ I hope that in meeting teachers, they know and appreciate the fact that parents are involved and they care what’s going on at school.”
For parents and caregivers who weren’t able to make it to Back to School Night, in the interest of equity, many teachers took to sharing out the links of their class slideshows for future viewing. Some teachers, such as Mrs. Koplowitz, even took to recording themselves presenting said slideshows to then post to Canvas. “I think the purpose for this equity [is] being able to reach all parents, even if they weren’t able to obtain babysitting for other siblings or attend due to a night job—a lot of these things unfortunately break down on socioeconomic lines, which can make it more difficult,” said Koplowitz.
Student Ambassador and Student Government Official Dina Mabrouk said, “I hope that going into the future, Back to School Night continues just as a whole, because I see that it’s really impactful for the parents.”
“Hopefully, we gave [parents] a broad sense of what life at B-CC would be like,” Goodwin continued, “But now that their student has spent a week and a few days in the building, then perhaps now they have a connection with the actual humans students are being taught by, and they can feel comfortable reaching out. We’re a part of the same team, and we are working to support the student as best as we can.”
