10 Reasons Why Branding Yourself May Strengthen Your Business
Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in, even if it may put heat and pressure on you as a business owner. As a business owner, creating the following petition helps brand me as a person who cares and is actively involved in my children’s lives and my community. I walk the walk.
There is much research indicating the more PE time our kids have in school, the better their academic performance, self esteem and discipline will be. Therefore, I believe it is critical for our schools to implement PE everyday. I also believe that parents should play an active partnership role in decision-making in the health programming of our schools.
I recently created a petition urging our schools to not reduce PE from 5 to 3 days in our elementary schools. Besides the obviously problem of reducing PE, is the underlying problem that the schools did not allow parents to be a part of conversation when determining they needed to reduce PE time. Even more disturbing than that, parents were not made aware of the safety issues due to overcrowding in the schools in the first place.
All Texas schools are mandated to have a Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC), made of a majority of parent representatives, which participate in health related curriculum decisions. I am a SHAC member and SHAC was not informed of any upcoming changes or issues in our schools prior to this petition. Texas mandates parental involvement for two reasons: to hold schools accountable and to ensure that community values are instilled in school health and wellness programming.
By taking this risk and initiating this petition many positive results occurred. 1). It prompted our school administrators to have a parent meeting. 2). Administrators got creative and initiated other forms of structured play and movement in the classrooms to substitute for the deleted PE minutes. 3). The petition gained publicity from the local newspaper, which interviewed the school administrators and some of us parents on the issue and allowed further communication to occur. 4). The petition brought parents together who approached the School Board of Trustees regarding the issue. This made the board aware of the issue and educated them on SHAC and it’s responsibilities. 5). The petition prompted the SHAC Executive Board to immediately and actively solicit parent members. 6). SHAC immediately scheduled regularly occurring SHAC meetings for the next upcoming year, in advance. 7). SHAC immediately solicited parental and community involvement in the planning process for the 2nd Liberty Fit Festival (a community wide event). 8). This petition also created a platform for the School Superintendent to write an article for the newspaper explaining the future building of an additional elementary school 9). The petition also created an opportunity for the Superintendent to launch a campaign proposing an election bond to fund the new school. 10). Most importantly, it made parents realize they need to be actively involved in their children’s education and it created a unified voice for them to stand up for future issues!
I would describe this petition as success! As a result of my calculated business and personal risk, our children will maintain their good health because parents stood up for their best interest. Parent involvement and communication has been opened and hopefully, administration and teachers will see that parent and school collaboration is a good, healthy process!
As a business owner, this petition helps brand me as a person who cares and is actively involved in my children’s lives and my community. I walk the walk. Therefore, you can trust that as my future client, I will do what is right for you too.
You should become a parent representative for SHAC too!
To download a SHAC member application, click here.
UPCOMING SHAC Meetings
All meetings will be held at the new LHISD Administration Building, 301 Forrest St., from 6:30 pm until 8 pm.
SHAC Mandatory Orientation Meetings (You must attend one of the following meetings Only, if you plan to become an official SHAC member.)
Tuesday, July 14
Thursday, July 23
Regular SHAC Meeting
Wednesday, August 19th - REGULAR SHAC Meeting
Liberty Fit Festival Planning Committee Meetings
Wednesday, September 23rd - Physical Education
Wednesday, November 18th - Child Nutrition
Wednesday, February 17th - School Safety
Wednesday, April 20th - Health and Wellness
If you are interested in forming a parent advocacy group for Liberty Hill, please sign up at the bottom of page www.fullpotentialbusinessconsulting.com/libertyfit/.
