Parent of the Year: McCusker Promotes Cohesion in Parent Group

Amanda Gronewold

Lisa McCusker, the outgoing president of the Gautier High School (GHS) Band Parent Association (BPA) and a mother of two children in the Pascagoula-Gautier School District, is the 2020 Mississippi Parent of the Year.

McCusker was nominated by the school district for her work on several projects that will make long-lasting impacts. Specifically, her work with the GHS BPA was noted, as she helped establish the inaugural Swamp Classic, the first marching band competition hosted in the Gautier area.

Dr. Carey Wright, Mississippi’s state superintendent of education, praised McCusker for her hard work and said she “represents the hundreds of parents who volunteer in schools across the state, supporting teachers, leaders and students as they work toward success.”

“I am grateful for their dedication and hard work in making Mississippi’s schools the best they can be,” Wright said.

McCusker joined the parent group during a time of transition for the band: A new band director was hired, and a new parent leadership team was formed. Building trust between band parents/ guardians, directors and the school, she said, was among the first large-scale challenges the group faced.

Lisa McCusker (center) poses with sons Michael (left) and Aidan. Michael is a graduate of Gautier High School (GHS) and the GHS band, and Aidan is a junior at the school.

The first step to meeting those challenges, she said, was listening.

“It took a lot of humility to listen to parents’ issues from before and why they weren’t interested in helping,” McCusker said. “So, it was a lot of listening in the beginning, and then it was just small steps of faith."

Those steps included demonstrating follow-through and dependability with her fellow parents and shifting their perspectives of what volunteering for the band means — actions beyond the obvious roles of helping with uniforms or working the concession stand during football games. She also enacted additional-yet-shorter work shifts for game nights, shifting from a few adults doing the work of many to a larger group that more evenly distributed the load.

The changes were “key in helping the concession stand during football them to understand that those 10 volunteers you see serving the nachos; games. She also enacted additional-yet-shorter work shifts for game they’re counted in and among another 30 who planned the menu, got the supplies, met the Coke guy, unloaded — those types of things,” McCusker said, and helped establish trust and cohesion with adult volunteers.

McCusker said she was rewarded for her efforts when she saw the band students’ excitement when they achieved their goals. She reminisced fondly of the times the band received high marks at marching competitions.

“There’s nothing better than seeing the look on their faces, hearing the cheers and even seeing their tears,” she said. “They get so excited.”

• GHS Band Parent Association (BPA) members pose while volunteering at the concession stand during a GHS football game. Under McCusker’s (front, second from right) leadership, the group restructured the concession volunteer schedule to distribute the workload more evenly, which led to increased parent participation.

Brandon Wilson, who served as the director of bands during McCusker’s leadership of the GHS BPA, described her as an invaluable asset, saying she was instrumental in improving parent and student culture for the team.

"She is the embodiment of the type of parent that any teacher would want in their corner,” he said.

Although McCusker plans to transition out of the parent group this semester, her impact will be felt by current and future members of the GHS BPA. She said the group’s focus on communicating their successes will secure these future generations of volunteers.

McCusker displays the 2019- 2020 Parent of the Year Award presented to her by the Pascagoula-Gautier School District. She was later named 2020’s Parent of the Year by the Mississippi Department of Education.

GHS BPA members are pictured at the Mississippi High School Activities Association Marching Band Evaluations in Gulfport. Pictured (front, left to right) are Jami Ros and Laura Hubbard. Pictured (back, left to right) are Kay C Jamison, Rachel Finnie, McCusker, Brandi Tisbury and Linnette Sanchez.