More than 70 people on Saturday turned out for the first of a series of meetings over the next two months to come up with ideas to make Cincinnati Public Schools more “parent-friendly.”

        The idea is to increase parental involvement in school affairs and prevent parents from looking elsewhere for children's education.

        “We cannot afford to lose good families from this district,” said Greg Loomis, a board member of Cincinnati Parents for Public Schools, which organized the morning-long meeting at the United Way building on Reading Road in Mount Auburn.

        “Improving a school system improves Cincinnati. It improves the economic, social and cultural well-being of the community. Certainly in terms of what happened in April (with the riots), it all starts in the school, classroom by classroom.”

        Parents, grandparents, guardians, teachers, administrators and community activists attended the meeting, called the Parent Involvement Taskforce.

        They broke up into five subcommittees. Among the issues they addressed: School board policies, facilities, transportation, teacher evaluations and a parent-friendly school culture.

        Each of the subcommittees will meet at least once before Feb. 23, when the full task force meets. A final meeting will be held March 16. The task force will then meld recommendations into a report for the CPS administration.

        “It was very useful,” said Bill Gordon of Fairview. “Cincinnati Public Schools has not done an excellent job of communicating with its parents.”

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