Those who have lost faith in the Durham Public Schools system now have a forum to learn and clear misunderstandings.
StrongDurhamSchools.com, established by Durham resident and parent Elizabeth Tolman, strives to be a resource for parents trying to decide which Bull City schools to enroll their children in. The site is run by the Durham Allies for Responsive Education, a group of parents seeking to inform the community about educational issues in the city.
Launched earlier this month, the website offers more than 170 personal stories about DPS written by parents. They seek to promote the schools as laudable institutes of education and provide information for parents well before the DPS Choice Fair and private school application deadlines.
Tolman said the driving force behind the website grew out of her frustration with the lack of information available to her when she was enrolling her daughter in kindergarten. Tolman, who has two children at Forest View Elementary, said there were “a lot of rumors but nothing concrete.” The website is intended to be a forum for discussion and a place to share personal stories so that parents can obtain authentic and credible information supplementing DPS sites.
“I hope the website will foster school spirit within the public schools,” she said. “We live in a community that is replete with talent and I would like for us to use it.”
Tolman said she hopes parents can overcome the fears that their children will not be challenged in the DPS system or could be affected by other students with behavioral issues, she said.
Ann Rebeck, a member of DARE, said the website is a great place for authentic information. The stories are reality-based, as opposed to information on the DPS website provided by administrators.
Lindsay Vail, the mother of two children at Club Boulevard Humanities Magnet School, also assisted in putting together the site. Vail said she believes that test scores should not be used to judge a school and that parents should use the website, visit schools and talk to other parents when it comes to choosing the right school for their children.
Vail added that she strongly supports Tolman’s goal and thinks it is essential that public schools be promoted if America is to be “the land of equal opportunity.”
Although this is the site’s first month, Tolman said she intends to put up flyers in parks to attract online traffic and hopes the site will become “a point of pride for Durham as a whole.”
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