Ms. Allyson Weaver

Ms. Weaver is a huge part of Parker as the assistant director for admissions and recruitment. She is a part of our community that you don't see often, but who makes a lot of the difference at Parker. She has accomplished much in her life, from tutoring math to working for the Cleveland Indians as a Human Resources Generalist. Ms. Weaver has a lot of experience with kids and teaching. She has a Master's degree in math, and has also worked as an assistant teacher here at Parker. Ms. Weaver is a critical person here at our busy school.

Ms. Weaver is the assistant director for admissions and recruitment. She plays an important role in getting people to come to the school and join the community. Ms. Weaver says, “You have to be able to have a person-to-person connection.” She makes sure Parker does not just use ads to put our school out there, but instead uses direct community outreach. Ms. Weaver goes around to different places. Her job was created to increase the diversity of our school in areas such as race, ethnicity, and social status. Everybody takes a part in admitting a new student: the students, the teachers and the community. Our junior kindergarten receives 150-200 applications, and only 70 kids are admitted. For 6th grade, there are 50-60 applications, not as many as for junior kindergarten. For 9th grade, there are 20-25 places for 200 applicants--even fewer than 6th grade. Ms. Weaver loves every aspect of her job. She said she loves the community and all the teachers. She loves meeting new parents and kids.

One very important thing that Ms. Weaver does as assistant director of admissions is that she interviews all the families. When she recruits students, she has some key things that she looks for: Are they hard workers? Do they play sports? Do they like art? Anything that stands out. Making the choice of who is admitted for junior kindergarten is more about the parents. If the parents only care about test scores or the child’s academics, they will probably not be a good fit for the school. She has to look closely at the family that is applying to Parker. Since this is a progressive school, Ms. Weaver has to look for students who learn by doing instead of those who just want to look at a blackboard full of facts all day. “The idea is to make families as comfortable as possible," she says, "so if you have a quiet person, you wouldn't be in their face being as loud as you can.” Ms. Weaver feels that sometimes when she interviews people she has to change her energy to fit theirs. The meetings are often one-on-one, and she tries to talk to people in person. “They are pouring their hearts out to you and that makes them feel more connected to the school," she told us.

Ms. Weaver grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, called Shaker Heights. She got her Master’s degree in teaching. She also got to participate in a lot of the Indians’ community outreach events, to go to all their home games, and to meet the players every now and then. Ms. Weaver was a math tutor and considered being a classroom teacher. She looked for opportunities to teach, and Parker had an assistant role open. Ms. Weaver became Ms. Miriam Pickus' assistant for two years, and Ms. Weaver still calls Ms. Pickus her greatest inspiration and supporter here. Ms. Weaver has been at Parker since 2009, but left for a year to work in CPS. She came back to Parker as a substitute teacher. When an admissions and recruitment job opened, she took it. When Ms. Weaver started, she did not have any background in advertising, but is now really good at it. She is responsible for the diversity recruitment as well as training and development for the Admissions Office. When asked, “Are there any other jobs you would like to have after experiencing this job?” Ms. Weaver said jokingly, “Watch out, Dan Frank!”

After realizing she didn't really like working in classrooms, but loved being part of a school, Ms. Weaver decided to try something different. She really enjoys working in admissions, but as with any job, it comes with challenges. “The hardest part of admitting someone into Parker,” she said, “is making the choice, since, all students are wonderful.” Another difficult element of her job is talking to the students who are not accepted. The students who are not accepted are told that it's not something personal, and that they are appreciated. Ms. Weaver enjoys many aspects of her job. One thing that she likes a lot are the interviews, because she gets to meet many new people. Once, a prospective student brought her grandmother to the interview, and the grandmother was hilarious; Ms. Weaver loved it. Another thing she likes is Open House because it shows 500 or more kids and parents to the Parker community. Ms. Weaver also loves walking down the halls seeing the kids’ smiling faces. She likes how this school doesn't try to put advertisements all over the city. “It makes a difference, to have human-to-human interaction," she said.

Ms. Weaver has a very important role at Parker and plays a big part in making our community as great as it is. We are very thankful to her for all she does for the school and for taking the time to interview with us!