If he had wanted to, Ronald Jones could have come up with a pretty good excuse not to be involved with his kids' schooling.
First Lt. Jones spent the past year in Camp Taji in Iraq, across the world from where his daughters attend school, Mount View Elementary School, 5322 N. 52nd St.
But he still called the school every now and then, checking on his daughters' progress, and talked with his wife about how the girls were doing.
"It's just very important that fathers step up and get involved," said Jones, who was deployed with the Nebraska National Guard's 67th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade and returned from Iraq in June. "I can actually see them improving in reading and math."
He and dozens of other fathers participated in the Million Father March Monday morning at Mount View. The march is an effort sponsored by the Black Star Project in Chicago to get dads to walk their children to school and get more involved with their kids' education.
The march also helped kick off the first day of school for the Omaha Public Schools, Nebraska's largest school district.
OPS expects to welcome more than 49,000 students for the 2011-12 school year. Most students returned to classes Monday, although some have their first day Tuesday.
"We had a couple of buses running late but nothing major this morning," said Luanne Nelson, OPS spokeswoman. "We would expect all the glitches to be taken care of by the end of the week."
Superintendent John Mackiel, along with other city and school officials, welcomed students to Mount View. "My one wish for the 2011-12 students: read," Mackiel said.
Mount View Principal Matthew Williams said that all family involvement is important to students' success but that it can be especially beneficial for fathers to get involved.
Mount View hosts at least one activity a month for parents to come to school. But, besides visiting or volunteering at school, parents can take an active role by asking children how their school day went or what they learned that day, he said.
"It sets the tone that education is important," Williams said. "The research shows — fathers are involved, children do better in school."
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