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Robinson High's Parent Meetings Go Smoother At Wine Bar

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

Parents listen to Robinson High School teachers talk during a meeting held at The Wine Exchange in Hyde Park.

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By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2008

TAMPA - Educators complain that parents aren't involved enough.

But, really – who looks forward to racing to school after a day at work to sit in the cafeteria for a parent meeting?

A group of Robinson High parents prefer kicking back with a cold beer, martini, glass of wine or sparkling water when they meet.

"It's great – getting it away from the school," said John Close of Brandon. He and his wife met with other parents on the covered patio at The Wine Exchange in Hyde Park Thursday night.

"I was kind of surprised the county did it," his wife, Angel, said.

The school district didn't. Parent boosters for Robinson High's International Baccalaureate program decided to break out of the school cafeteria/family picnic mode.

"We had to think a little bit different about our approach – parents are busy, they come from all over the county," said Debra Faulk, president of the Robinson IB Link, or RIBLI for short.

And, Faulk said: "At the end of the day, I would like a glass of wine."

Parents don't have to buy anything at the meetings, although some paired baked brie and fruit plates or other appetizers with their wine.

"We're helping out the economy as well," said Dan Johnson, a parent from Westchase who called his first parent meeting "fabulous."

Diane Fenimore, the group's vice president, noted, "The husbands come. How nice is that?"

The meetings will move to other areas of the county where families of the more than 300 students who attend the IB magnet program at Robinson live.

International Baccalaureate is a rigorous academic program with its own curriculum that is recognized worldwide. The small size of the program lends itself to an informal setting, parents and teachers said.

"When you're sitting in an auditorium, you're kind of listening, then you go to the classroom – you're in line waiting to talk to a teacher," said Tara Miller, comparing parent night at school with the informal gathering. "You basically feel like a student."

"This is wonderful," Miller said, sipping a martini.

At least six of the 14 IB teaching staff members showed up Thursday. Two gave informal talks.

"It doesn't feel like work here," said Jaclyn Esslinger, an IB social studies teacher. "It's not as serious. Building rapport with parents is going to benefit students in the long run."

"We feel like we can socialize, get to know each other as people instead of being a business meeting," said Robert Lunsford, an Advanced Placement European history teacher who discussed setting up a German exchange program and summer travel for students.

"You get better performance out of the students if they know mom and dad know the teacher," Lunsford said.

Larry Hollis, an AP biology and physics teacher, said the gathering that includes wine "is kind of in keeping with IB," an international program in more than 100 countries.

"We're used to American mores," Hollis said. "Things aren't necessarily that way around the world. I've lived in Germany. Germans think Americans are a bunch of prudes."

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069.

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