Turning schools into communities

[purplkat]

Earlier today, I posted about saving California, and I mentioned that one thing that we should do is turn schools into centers of the community. I said that I'd post about that later today. Well, it's later, so here you go.

First, my argument for why we should turn schools into centers of the community: As many of you know, nickel is a teacher. He

Comments

[purplkat]

The idea would be that the school hires more full time teachers, not just part time, so that they can have the usual employment protection and salary. The part time teachers would be the late night adult class teachers. But yes, what I envisioned involved the hiring of a lot more teachers. (Thus creating a lot more jobs.) An increased teacher salary would make the job attractive enough that they'd find enough candidates

Part-time teachers

[nickel]

In California, teachers have to spend their first two years on probation, and putting in 90+ hours a year on extended learning. (This is /after/ six years of college education).

If we could incorporate these teachers into a school as part-time teachers whose role is to monitor homework classes, assist with electives and monitor students while fully credentialed teachers work on preparing for classes and tutoring struggling students. The problem is money.

Money would be necessary to keep the school open later. Money would be needed to hire part-time teachers. Money would be needed to coordinate evening crews and morning crews both in maintenance and for academics (principals are often 12 hours a day on a regular school day). Finally, money would be needed to make the transition from a 8-3 school to a 7-7 school. Prop 13 is hiding a lot of money in the pockets of homeowners who expect the state to foot the bill for their child's education without recompense.

Re: Part-time teachers

[purplkat]

I wrote this post as a coda of my 'saving california' post, and in it, I specifically attacked the initiatives system. I don't remember if I mentioned that without Prop 13 being repealed, California is doomed, but if I didn't, I should have.

Repealing Prop 13 is key to saving California, never mind our schools.

[natsunekko]

Perhaps a way to do this without needing additional funds would be to merge school campuses with the YMCA, community center, and/or local library buildings--sorta like a college campus. The after school "electives" can be taught by the same people who now teach classes at the rec center--which would probably see a big increase in use, if it got the after-school crowd

[purplkat]

I'm betting that there's no parental support exactly because of what you're talking about, the doors being locked, school being used -only- for classes. Even that distrust in the students, that they're going to misbehave and be doing drugs and screwing each other on the library checkout counter and whatever else they think is going to happen leaks through, and doesn't inspire any kind of loyalty. Parents have no connection to the school as something to be proud of and to want to support.

You might suggest that they start out by trying to get the parents to volunteer for something more fun -- ushering for a school play, or running a booth at a school carnival, monitoring a club (if they even have clubs). It's a rare person who wants to monitor a ton of teenagers, but get them connected to the school, the kids, and the other parents, and it becomes a different matter.