Community Education

This is the time of the year that we prepare for next years budget. Numerous discussions normally take place during the development of a budget, such as, program improvements, facility needs, curriculum development, and professional development. Unfortunately, the last few years all of our budget discussions have been about staffing reductions, program reductions, and elimination of administrative services. With our current budget short falls any program improvements must be met with program reductions. While this makes sense in these economical times, the problem is some of the program improvements that I would like to discuss would not have cost the district budgetary funds. 

The one program improvement that I desperately wished to discuss was to start a community education program. In this proposal the initial cost of the program would have been raised by private funds donated from local businesses. We had several commitments for corporations for the start of this program. This would have allowed us to offer specific courses that may have had a small cost associated with course materials for those individuals interested in signing up for a course. The model that we were looking to use has been very successful in several neighboring communities.

The need for our district to have a community education program is great, we have a low socioeconomic section in the community that requires cost effective education. This we assist the school in educating these parents to better assist their children academically at home as well as build a connectedness to a population that has not been active in the school community. This is paramount to our district as voter turnout for budget adoption is low, which in the last fifteen years the district has not been able to successfully pass a budget.

In these economic times we as educators need to start thinking outside the normal budgetary revenue streams to develop programs that can enhance our communities. We need to constantly add value to what we do as educators for our communities. Programs staffed by our teachers allows for opportunities for parents, community members, and senior citizens to be a part of our schools. This is a win-win situation for everyone in the community, teachers, parents, students, and citizens. Teachers can tech specific courses that they are particularly interested in and can be paid based upon enrollment and course taught. We have several very talented teachers with specific expertise in digital photography, arts, CPR and AED training, math, science, engineering, bio-medical, and general education. 

With the needs of our students and community members the interest in a program was tremendous! The school district could have for the first time in over two decades had serious community involvement in the schools and service to the community. Unfortunately, our short sightedness is not allowing us to connect with our community.