Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Closed Campus


locks, originally uploaded by mhall209.

When school is out of session many teachers still come to campus to do work in their classrooms. Changing the decorations, rearranging furniture, or just plain "getting ready." On most vacations I will go in to the class for a day or two with various things that never seem to get done during the school year.

Over the winter break this year my wife and I (she is a special ed teacher in another district) decided to share a ride so that we could work in the classroom for a few hours. I was going to drop her off at her school, and then go to my school. Arriving at her school found an empty parking lot. Bad news. No custodian meant the alarm was on, and she would not be able to access her room. We both went on to my school. Same thing, no custodian meant no classroom work.

When vacation was over and we all were back at work I found myself in front of the school in the dark of the morning with students and teachers alike. Waiting for someone to open the door. Apparently the custodian staff has been cut to the point that we can't get into the building before school like we used to be able to. The floors get cleaned less often, the trash emptied less often, and of course the teachers get to be in their rooms less often.

I understand that budgets are tight. I understand that you cant spend money that you don't have. But I don't understand how we can improve our schools when they are locked up.

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