We thought you might enjoy reading about the efforts of the volunteer community at Stowe (HBS) School.
You can read their newsletter here.
Items we find interesting include these:
The SCG Hospitality Committee organizes events showing appreciation for the work of the HBS staff. For the first day of school we had a welcome back to school breakfast buffet, and in November we had a soup luncheon for the HBS staff. We also organize teacher appreciation tokens. For example, in January teachers received a bag of mints with a tag that read “Thank you for your commit-mint to our children’s education.” Also in January, the staff enjoyed a “grab and go treat buffet” on the early release day, and after the February break, the Hospitality Committee dropped off six dozen Frosty’s twist donuts as a
welcome back from vacation surprise for the HBS staff! Upcoming events include a potluck dinner during April’s parent-teacher conference time, and a teacher appreciation luncheon in May. Our goal is to share with the staff how much we admire and appreciate all they do to educate and nurture our children.
Maybe we’re just confused, but this sounds very much like the public is here to serve the staff, rather than the staff serving the public. But who knows; we’re probably just misguided.
Take a look at this:
The Teacher Prep Committee has been very busy this year as well. A number of volunteers have stepped up to assist the teachers with prep work for their classrooms. Volunteers work on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am-12pm
to complete a wide variety of work, including photocopying, laminating, and any other task that teachers request to assist with their classroom work. The Teacher Prep Committee is always looking for more volunteers; if you are interested, please simply show up on Tuesday or Thursday mornings and check in at the main office. Thank you in advance for any assistance we can get!
Call this what you will, but consistent with our quandary in the post earlier today, it sounds to us like the volunteers are, in so many words, personal staff for the teachers, rather than volunteers who assist in the learning and enrichment process. Our suspicions grow stronger.
For your edification, here’s another dose of information showing just what is involved in funding our schools these days.
http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/hbs/contact-our-staff/
As you can see, HBS has approximately 40 ‘faculty’ on staff, but also has another 40 or more staff in various supporting positions, including two ‘talent development teachers.’ They must be the ones coaching hot prospects for entering the American Idol competition.
All told, 100 plus educational staff, or a ratio of one for every 6 students or so. Not including custodial and food service staff.
We know we’re old fashioned and completely out of touch with modern day government education standards, but this leaves even us aghast.
And we don’t ghast all that easily.
No comments:
Post a Comment