by Renee Hunter
Students are more successful when parents are involved in their education. In Vilonia, Jeannie Grissom has worked for 16 years to help make that happen.

Vilonia School District Superintendent Dr. Frank Mitchell established the Vilonia Parent Center in 1992 – long before parental involvement efforts were required by law – because he wanted a resource center that would serve as a liaison between parents and schools.
“We were the first to have a center like this,” said Jeannie, center coordinator. “Dr. Mitchell was ahead of his time.”
Among programs designed to help involve parents in their children’s education, the center offers:
• Book nights for preschool through fourth grade, at which families get free books and activity packets.
• Annual instructional packets that tell parents what their children are expected to learn.
• A fair held each April for families of incoming kindergarten students, which highlights specific readiness areas such as the alphabet, colors and sequencing.
• A brunch for kindergarten parents on the first day of school, brown-bag lunches for parents, and other occasions to allow parent networking.
• A Christmas make-and-take, which introduces families to activities that enhance learning.
• An early-childhood focus group, a recent program addition.
The center also offers parenting classes, which reach about 100 adults annually. The first class, “Love and Logic,” helps parents increase their effectiveness by learning to curb anger and frustration. Class two, “Megaskills,” helps parents integrate basic values and skills. Each class is limited to 12 people.
Jeannie’s assistant, Amanda Westbrook, serves as a parent liaison and operates a program for children who are struggling but are not eligible for other services. She also handles enrichment prescriptions – lists of objectives that children and parents are expected to address. The parent, the teacher and the center each get a copy of the prescription, and the center provides supplemental materials to help reach the objectives.
“It’s not meant to be extra homework; it’s meant to be a fun time,” Jeannie said. “Without the enrichment prescription, it’s difficult for me to know what the child needs.”
As with so many school programs, budget constraints keep money tight. Jeannie stretches the dollars by obtaining free resources from the Arkansas Parent Involvement Resource Center. “Arkansas does an outstanding job of providing supplies and support,” she said.
In 2000, eight years after the center started, “No Child Left Behind” was passed and required a parent-involvement component for Title I students. In 2003, Arkansas Act 603 went the extra mile by requiring the same for all students.
As a result, Vilonia’s program has been much studied by other districts. 
“We’ve become a model program for the Arkansas Department of Education,” said Jeannie. “I have an outstanding administration that allows me to share what I’ve learned.
“I’m a rare bird in the state of Arkansas, a full-time parent facilitator.”
Most parent facilitators are part time because, while it requires them to be certified, Act 603 provides no funding.
With the increased attention from other districts, Jeannie soon began getting requests to write a handbook for parent facilitators. “They kept the pressure on me” until finally she sat down and “in a couple of evenings, I had thrown together a rough draft,” she said. She sought input from others which grew into a second draft.
In the spring, a committee of state employees, members of the Center for Effective Parenting and Jeannie refined the draft to a final form. The handbook is called “Love, Luck, Laughter and Lollipops.” Love is used in the title because parents need to know schools care; luck, because we make our own; laughter, because humor is the best way to relate to parents; and lollipops because “free stuff tames the beast in all of us.” It will be unveiled in October at an Arkansas Parent Education Network conference.
There is no quantitative way to measure the center’s success since many factors determine each student’s success or failure. But Jeannie knows it has been successful.
“The most glaring example of this program’s effectiveness is that when it started our staff was not all that supportive,” she said. “The staff has become supportive because of feedback from parents.” 
That feedback makes Jeannie feel good about her work and the future of students in the Vilonia district. “I make a difference in the life of a child every day,” Jeannie said. “I love my job.”