Several suggestions for creating and encouraging parental involvement: 1. Again, genealogy - the pros and cons have already been voiced by others. It really depends on the make-up of the class or classes. Some teachers seem to handle this very well despite what looks like a delicate situation(s) - others, after carrying out their own cursory survey of the students opt not to touch this topic, or if they do - they often pick historical figures from the community, or even the teacher's family for everyone to research. There are creative solutions that allow everyone to participate with positive outcomes and great research experiences. 2. Selecting houses or buildings in the community and having the students conduct deed searches at the County Court Clerk's office for these buildings. Some students may want to select their own family's house or plots of land. The buildings, with the deed search information, could bring your class around to genealogy again - tracing the owners' histories in the community and where they came from and why they settled there. 3. Compiling a history of your school district, or one aspect of your school's history (centralization, one-room schools, architecture, cultural life of the district, etc.), or organizing an anniversary celebration commemorating the construction of a school building, consolidation, and so forth. Projects that involve the history of community schools really bring in parents, grandparents, and others who live in the community - or used to live in the community. The school is something many people have in common and have an interest in (if they live in the community they are even paying for it!). Holland Patent Central School District has been studying the cultural life of their school district for four years. Students at all grade levels - elementary thru seniors in high school - are studying some aspect of the district's history. This rural school district now has a list of 150-200 people from the community who are willing to come into the classroom and share their experiences. Many graduates and former teachers have dropped by to share historical records and artifacts - many of these items have been donated back to the district, or in the case of historical records, photocopies have been made and the originals returned to the owners. A contact for this project is Patrick Peterson, the district's teacher center director. He can be reached at (315) 865-7226. Burnt Hills Ballston Lake Middle School has also been working on school district history with much success. They have now created a cultural resource center in the Middle School for students and teachers to use. This resouce center houses copies of historical records and artifacts. Many items in the center were donated by the public who found out about the project through local media coverage. A contact at Burnt Hills Ballston Lake is Allan Chapman, Assistant Superintendent (518) 399-6408. This summer they will be adding their historical material to the district's web site. Poestenkill Elementary School and the Town of Poestenkill are researching the history of their school and community. They are developing a publication (1998) that will explore the history of Poestenkill through the eyes of the children who have gone to school there - now and in the past. They have incorporated art and music with local history and have included alumni and others in time capsule events and theatrical performances. Open meetings have been held in the community. The public was invited to share their stories about growing up in Poestenkill and any historical records and three dimensional objects they may have. The contact person for this project is Nancy Strong, Principal, Poestenkill Elementary, (518) 283-5115. All of the projects mentioned above have two important aspects in common - 1. excellent local media coverage - this was key to community participation; 2. they all received Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund grants from the New York State Archives to get them up and running. If you are interested in finding out more about the grant program, please give me a call (518) 473-8037, or e-mail [log in to unmask] I hope I hear from you! Julie Daniels NYS Archives [log in to unmask]