whoo. hard to find time to put words in this space right now. though i have a couple of projects on my sewing table that i am quite happy with. our neighbourhood public school transformation is still the focus of my attention. two grant applications down (lowe's and city beautification) and one to go (kirk&anne douglas). fingers crossed please.
we had an amazing meeting the other day with an architect who has been "donated" to our parent group by a "westside philanthropist". he has this fantastic vision of what our school can be. it gets me all goose-bumpy. when our neighbourhood elementary school opened in 1956 disney came and filmed it for inclusion in their "circarama" production "a tour of the west". it was a school of the future. sadly - it pretty much stayed in 1956 and is in need of some tlc. (on the upside it maintains its 50's design, keeping with the 'hood.) so we are trying to recapture some of that initial pride in what our school can be. we have great teachers. great kids. great families. just need a little facelift to show the larger community that we care. to pique the interest of those neighbours who are spending thousands of dollars a year going to private school, and those who are writing big cheques to the pta-s of "better" public schools. this is our neighbourhood school after all! we can walk to it. we see our neighbours every morning as we trek along. some walk with us. some are backing out of their driveways for the long and tedious commute to some other school. (and you've heard me say it before - it is the school in our community, we need to be putting our community in the school!)
so back to the grant writing...
have a wonderful weekend!
3 comments:
You are such an inspiration T. Good luck with the grant writing!!
here here!!! i am so with you on this! instead of complaining, we need to be part of the solution. i feel so strongly about public school and i love your enthusiasm. funny how asthetics (sp?) play such a strong role in impressions. you can have a wonderful staff of teachers, but without the right surroundings, people just don't see the potential. my best friend lives in your neighborhood, she pays the big bucks for private school (which i know she cant afford) i hope someday she will see it like you do! thanks for a great post tracy, you inspire me to get even more involved in my local pta.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
i'm writing to you from corvallis, oregon where i live with my husband and 1 year old son. there is an elementary school in our neighborhood, but a lot of the families we hang out with are considering waldorf or some other private school for their children. (the kids are all under 4 years old right now.) but it has recently dawned on a group of us parents that we could make our neighborhood school just as warm, welcoming, and rich in "extras" and parent involvement as any private school might seem to be. many of us are stay at home parents and are willing to share our own personal skills and time to make the school great. but we're "green", meaning we don't really know where to start or how to start. i thought you might be willing to share some insights and/or recommendations for books and other resources that would be good starting places for inspiration and consideration.
thanks for your thoughts...
-rebecca.
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