They are active in school affairs and community sports.
He continued to teach and be active in medical school affairs for many years thereafter.
But how to make the connection with parents, especially those not active in school affairs, has long been a question with few satisfactory answers.
"We have had a trend toward students with more experience over the past 10 years," said Jay S. Stowsky, associate dean for school affairs and initiatives at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
It also forces families to divide their resources and support between multiple schools, and in schools like these where the Parent Teacher Association plays such an important role in all school affairs, this is potentially quite damaging.
They almost never speak publicly about school affairs, and even in the rarefied world of top private schools they carry a reputation for aloofness that may be coloring impressions of their current response.
Mr Putnam pointed out that in the two decades to the mid-1990s, the number of Americans who said they had attended a public meeting on local or school affairs had fallen by a third.
It would also have meant stepping into a political minefield at a time when racial tensions were boiling and school affairs were closely linked to issues of race, said Marion Orr, a political science professor at Brown University.
"The mayor took a gamble that we would get help from the state at the last minute, and the last horse came in," said Maria Chiulli, a school board member who has repeatedly denounced Mr. Spencer's involvement in school affairs.
People active in school affairs said he stopped wearing a religious collar in favor of a suit and tie two years ago and no longer used the term "brother" to refer to himself.
