chart: Education Jobs From Stimulus

Northborough-Southborough Created 5 retained 8
( Sue please don’t refer to my numbers as fraudulent)

Where are these people? What are their names? Does it mean we have to cut less teachers?
Perhaps the government had the zip code wrong.
This was not written by John Butler. If it had been it would be a lot more articulate.

Where are the five? Does that mean

I hope I’m quoting Eileen’s figures correctly – apparently in the middle school there are three fast paced math classes containing 30, 31, and 32 students. The school must feel that these students are capable of learning in a larger environment. I have a math loving child who has no problem at all learning in a large class. I also have a child with learning disabilties who has struggled in classrooms with 10 or fewer students.

This community is extremely supportive of education. If you’ve been reading the posts, you’ll see just how much time & money is donated to the schools by involved parents and community volunteers. I really can’t see that our children are being shortchanged at all, to be honest.

The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. – Shirley Maclaine

In today’s world I find some small comfort keeping myself amused in this way.

I respect Neil’s vocabulary and likely agree with him on much more than he realizes. I disagree with his position that increasing the size of classes will not reduce the quality of the education for the kids in our community and I’m very confident that his class of 40 did not include kids with the special needs that today are included in the system. I have neither the time nor the desire to argue with the statistics referenced. When the statistics referenced defy logic the issue is almost certainly with the user. If they can find comfort for their position referencing those statistics, there is a larger issue for which logic plays no role.

These children have done nothing to deserve the legacy of debt and obligations that have been promised in the form of social security and medicare. It’s horrible that such a legacy would be left to them at all; that we would not give them every eduational advantage that we can is something I can not reconcile with my sense of right and wrong.

I fear that history will not be kind to the post-war generation that has collectively left this country so much for the worse than what was handed to them.

I haven’t written this in MSWord and copied it over so forgive the almost certain speling and gramatical errors.

Kudos to all of those who volunteer in our community in any capacity. Your work is very much appreciated.

Your point is true for all elections and/or appointments. If you don’t like what the School Committee, B of S or Moderator does your option is to vote them out.

In addition to room parent volunteers who help the teachers in and outside the classroom, parents are also in the classroom every week at Finn for: Math Workshop, Writing Workshop, Mystery Reader, lunch room monitoring, and as Kathryn said Library and Computer assistance. At Woodward, parents are in the classroom to assist with: Writing, Literacy Activities, Math Workshops, Mystery Reader, Computers, Library. At Neary, parents help with Library and Computers every week. In addition to the above, parents are regularly in the classroom to help with ad hoc projects and activities. Parents also help teachers and the schools outside of the classroom by managing bulletin boards and marquees , organizing things in the classroom, typing students’ materials, laminating, cutting, recycling.

Then there are the many things parent volunteers do through SOS, including but not limited to:
Cultural Arts & Enrichment – organize and run “culture days”, e.g., Chinese, Indian, Russian, Egyptian, with activities and educational units to teach kids; NE Aquarium visit to school; Arithmatickels to school; Nutcracker trip
Community Read Day – organize volunteers to read to all classes on same day
Teacher Grants – up to $100 per teacher to help offset their considerable out of pocket expenses for classroom materials or training
Educational Diversity Training at Neary to teach kids about dyslexia and other ways of learning people have
Bus Monitors
Collect and send for remittance Box Tops for Education (which brings in $1000’s for schools, crazy but true)
Communicate between schools/teachers and parents
Organize all social events (e.g., Ice Cream Social, Bingo, Sock Hop, Noodle Night)
Retain photographer and coordinate school pictures
Art Shows
Field Trips – subsidize, organize and provide volunteers

In addition to parental volunteers, the schools are also aided by seniors who volunteer in many capacities there.

In my experience at Finn and Woodward, it would be hard to imagine more parental volunteer involvement without those parents having proper certification to take over teaching or aide functions. I do not know whether there are more opportunities or places where parental volunteers could be utilized in Neary and Trottier as well as high school. This is definitely worth exploring as Kate suggests, for the reasons she suggests (not just helping schools, but good for kids at older ages). Although many families have both parents working by the time their children are of Neary age and up, many may still be willing and available to help in the classroom more if possible.

With all of the concern regarding the possibility of rising class sizes and the resulting impact on student learning, not to mention the added stress for teachers, I started thinking about how parents could help in a practical way. This led me to remember all of the hours of volunteer time I had spent in classrooms up until my youngest moved to middle school. A teacher’s job is a difficult one, and with a recession in full swing, using human capital seems to make sense to me. We’re fortunate to live in an involved community – while passing an override in these difficult times may not be a sure thing, I’m sure parents will step up and help to make sure that teachers continue to be supported in every way possible.

Perhaps General SOS has gathered information regarding volunteer hours in the schools – this should be checked. You’re correct, room parents send out volunteer requests each year, so there might be some data available.