Schools Need to Think Outside The Classroom
NYS governor Paterson recently announced major funding cuts to NYS schools.
Because of this, all of the cities and towns are just abuzz about the impending educational disaster. Not wanting to inject this particular post with the normal upstate rhetoric of removing NYC from the state, there are several things that can and need to be changed to survive this economic earthquake. NYS has been hit hard economically twice in 1 decade - 9/11 and now.
I just wrote a letter to the editor, and wish to expand upon it further here. For many of the answers lie in sustainability, conservation, and of course, common sense.
School Week
I actually don't like the idea of shortening the school week, but this will be the single largest cost effective move possible. There are also ways to make this less of a day off than most would think. I do know it adds to the burden of the parents, but with the way many jobs are going, their weeks may be shortened as well.
So, with this understanding, the school week must be shortened to 4 days, rather than the average 5. This will mean an increase in the length of the school day by a full hour, along with the use of electronic media to augment the classroom during days off.
The advantages of closing schools for 3 straight days, rather than just 2 are many.
Reduced utility costs. There are few areas in life that one can reduce the cost of anything by 15%-20% in a single move. But the truth is, it's possible. Lighting, heating, cooking energy will all be reduced by at least 15%. Cooking will be a full 20% since the kitchens will be closed for at least 1 days. Lighting and heating costs will be reduced at least 15% since there will be 3 straight days with little or none used. There is a cost to reheating to working temperatures daily, so eliminating at least one of those reheating cycles will reduce the energy more than the straight reduction of not heating for at least 1 additional day.
I keep saying at least 1 day since many schools have programs running on weekend days as well. These will need to be rescheduled for during the new school week to realize the true savings necessary.
Salaries. I do not advocate in any way, a cut in teachers' salaries. They will still be working the same number of hours. These hours, however, will be distributed in different ways, not reduced. Not Reduced. The savings will come in the form of the support staff. Cafeteria workers, cleaning crews, bus drivers and administrative staff. Because the lengthening of the school day does not fully replace the number of hours total the school would normally be open, these people will all lose hours, but should still remain full time. This will not reduce health care, unemployment, worker's comp., etc. It will, at least reduce the overall cost by about 5%.
Buses. The first reduction is from 1 fewer days running. This should reduce costs by at least 15%. The second way to reduce the cost further is to reduce the number of stops each bus makes per mile. Most districts have a limit of 3-4 stops per mile. If stops were reduced to 2 per mile, regardless of which side of the road the children lived on, mileage and maintenance per bus would be improved by a full 5%. With fuel costs having been what they were in the past few years, a 5% reduction in cost, regardless of current prices, would be welcome to any school district.
Another reduction should be in distance travel. No trip should be taken that is of a greater distance than 30 miles, round trip. It will significantly curtail many sports, but the sports will remain, band competitions will remain, and some day trips will remain. Shortening the distances regularly traveled for these purposes should reduce fuel and maintenance costs another 1-2%.
Food. The school lunch program needs to be eliminated in its current form. Except for those being surved free lunches due to family economic needs, there should be no need for a full school lunch. However, fresh fruits and vegetables should be available to augment lunches brought from home and snack times in elementary schools. This will save the family and the schools alike. It is cheaper to pack a lunch, than pay for the school program. It will allow the schools to reduce costs of operating at least 1 kitchen per school, and often multiple kitchens in larger schools or high schools. The reduction in energy and staff would see a savings of 5-8%.
Considering the school lunch program is a way to rid the agri-business of surplus foods and little else, this is not a substantial loss.
Long Term
School districts need to view this as an issue that will never go away. By taking all of the above actions will allow a possible surplus in funding, which can be spent in making each building more energy efficient/independent.
Even in NYS, solar is viable. There is a new solar technologythat would be of great use to virtually every public building in NYS - for they all have flat roofs. And since Germany is finding this technology worth the investment, NYS should consider it a perfect fit.
There is also new wind technology that makes even the lightest breeze in many of our valleys capable of producing electricity at a fraction of the cost of current turbines.
Low flow toilets, more efficient lighting, radiant heat are all within grasp of schools with the tightest of budgets, and will give huge savings in a matter of 3 years or less.
Existing technology for taking the older diesel powered buses and making them run on old frying oil can be incorporated, while buying buses that run on electric can be seen as a future investment.
The Children
I can actually see a very real benefit to the children from this current crisis. School has become little more than memorization fueled by candy bars and soda from the snack machines in the entryway.
By having slightly longer classes per day, students will have a better chance of understanding and comprehending the information being given to them. Having pod casts created either as a weekly review or of daily lectures to DL in school or through the internet, they have the opportunity to listen to the information as often as necessary, of which many children would benefit.
All communities have a public access channel that is underutilized by the community. This would be the perfect combination of technology meeting need. Create an hour-long program for each subject as a weekly review to be shown at specific times throughout the week. This way each subject would be reviewed with the parent there to assist, if need be, in explaining the topic. And with so many hours available on the channel, these could be run for literally every topic of every grade. These 2 pieces of technology, along with tutoring sites online, would give each child the opportunity for the additional review all teachers agree children need.
The reduction of the use of school buses will aid the children. A program launched recently called Walk THERE explains it very nicely. The children will lose weight, be more fit, and reports are showing they are also more attentive and less prone to outbursts in class. The parents who make the commitment to the Walking School Bus are finding they are healthier, lose weight and have less depression. What more could you ask for?
Removing the school lunch program will also aid the children. These meals are typically out of the control of the nutritionist hired by the school districts, due to the food stuffs being surplus and mandated for use by the governments. This means the meals are typically high in fat, low in fiber, high sodium, high sugar and low complex carbohydrates which all make for a very difficult afternoon in the classroom. By having the nutritionist detail appropriate lunches to be sent from home, augmented by fresh fruit and vegetables in the cafeteria, the children will be healthier and far more attentive for afternoon classes. This gives the very real opportunity to have children learn the information being taught the first time around, negating any damage done by a shortened week.
Starting a vegetable garden on site would allow the children to watch the full cycle of their food, which has been proven to improve their dietary habits - from projects 35 years ago to present day. It would also allow more control over what the children eat and what is needed by them.
A program called (Neighborhood Harvest) would also be of great assistance to school food programs by utilizing local fruit grown but not harvested by private individuals. NYS has hectares of orchards that have gone almost wild that would do very well to be trimmed up and harvested for our schools, soup kitchens and food pantries. There are other sources as well, such as NY Food Exchange that would be perfect for connecting schools with growers, families with growers, etc.
This is an incredible opportunity for NYS to seize upon, revolutionizing education in ways never before imagined in ways that are already available to all. Nothing needs inventing. Nothing needs to be created. It's waiting to be utilized.
Ask your school district what it is planning on doing to create the next generation of education - something that hasn't evolved in generations.
PS - my numbers aren't based on any study or any information other than common sense and I have kept them all conservatively based.
Because of this, all of the cities and towns are just abuzz about the impending educational disaster. Not wanting to inject this particular post with the normal upstate rhetoric of removing NYC from the state, there are several things that can and need to be changed to survive this economic earthquake. NYS has been hit hard economically twice in 1 decade - 9/11 and now.
I just wrote a letter to the editor, and wish to expand upon it further here. For many of the answers lie in sustainability, conservation, and of course, common sense.
School Week
I actually don't like the idea of shortening the school week, but this will be the single largest cost effective move possible. There are also ways to make this less of a day off than most would think. I do know it adds to the burden of the parents, but with the way many jobs are going, their weeks may be shortened as well.
So, with this understanding, the school week must be shortened to 4 days, rather than the average 5. This will mean an increase in the length of the school day by a full hour, along with the use of electronic media to augment the classroom during days off.
The advantages of closing schools for 3 straight days, rather than just 2 are many.
Reduced utility costs. There are few areas in life that one can reduce the cost of anything by 15%-20% in a single move. But the truth is, it's possible. Lighting, heating, cooking energy will all be reduced by at least 15%. Cooking will be a full 20% since the kitchens will be closed for at least 1 days. Lighting and heating costs will be reduced at least 15% since there will be 3 straight days with little or none used. There is a cost to reheating to working temperatures daily, so eliminating at least one of those reheating cycles will reduce the energy more than the straight reduction of not heating for at least 1 additional day.
I keep saying at least 1 day since many schools have programs running on weekend days as well. These will need to be rescheduled for during the new school week to realize the true savings necessary.
Salaries. I do not advocate in any way, a cut in teachers' salaries. They will still be working the same number of hours. These hours, however, will be distributed in different ways, not reduced. Not Reduced. The savings will come in the form of the support staff. Cafeteria workers, cleaning crews, bus drivers and administrative staff. Because the lengthening of the school day does not fully replace the number of hours total the school would normally be open, these people will all lose hours, but should still remain full time. This will not reduce health care, unemployment, worker's comp., etc. It will, at least reduce the overall cost by about 5%.
Buses. The first reduction is from 1 fewer days running. This should reduce costs by at least 15%. The second way to reduce the cost further is to reduce the number of stops each bus makes per mile. Most districts have a limit of 3-4 stops per mile. If stops were reduced to 2 per mile, regardless of which side of the road the children lived on, mileage and maintenance per bus would be improved by a full 5%. With fuel costs having been what they were in the past few years, a 5% reduction in cost, regardless of current prices, would be welcome to any school district.
Another reduction should be in distance travel. No trip should be taken that is of a greater distance than 30 miles, round trip. It will significantly curtail many sports, but the sports will remain, band competitions will remain, and some day trips will remain. Shortening the distances regularly traveled for these purposes should reduce fuel and maintenance costs another 1-2%.
Food. The school lunch program needs to be eliminated in its current form. Except for those being surved free lunches due to family economic needs, there should be no need for a full school lunch. However, fresh fruits and vegetables should be available to augment lunches brought from home and snack times in elementary schools. This will save the family and the schools alike. It is cheaper to pack a lunch, than pay for the school program. It will allow the schools to reduce costs of operating at least 1 kitchen per school, and often multiple kitchens in larger schools or high schools. The reduction in energy and staff would see a savings of 5-8%.
Considering the school lunch program is a way to rid the agri-business of surplus foods and little else, this is not a substantial loss.
Long Term
School districts need to view this as an issue that will never go away. By taking all of the above actions will allow a possible surplus in funding, which can be spent in making each building more energy efficient/independent.
Even in NYS, solar is viable. There is a new solar technologythat would be of great use to virtually every public building in NYS - for they all have flat roofs. And since Germany is finding this technology worth the investment, NYS should consider it a perfect fit.
There is also new wind technology that makes even the lightest breeze in many of our valleys capable of producing electricity at a fraction of the cost of current turbines.
Low flow toilets, more efficient lighting, radiant heat are all within grasp of schools with the tightest of budgets, and will give huge savings in a matter of 3 years or less.
Existing technology for taking the older diesel powered buses and making them run on old frying oil can be incorporated, while buying buses that run on electric can be seen as a future investment.
The Children
I can actually see a very real benefit to the children from this current crisis. School has become little more than memorization fueled by candy bars and soda from the snack machines in the entryway.
By having slightly longer classes per day, students will have a better chance of understanding and comprehending the information being given to them. Having pod casts created either as a weekly review or of daily lectures to DL in school or through the internet, they have the opportunity to listen to the information as often as necessary, of which many children would benefit.
All communities have a public access channel that is underutilized by the community. This would be the perfect combination of technology meeting need. Create an hour-long program for each subject as a weekly review to be shown at specific times throughout the week. This way each subject would be reviewed with the parent there to assist, if need be, in explaining the topic. And with so many hours available on the channel, these could be run for literally every topic of every grade. These 2 pieces of technology, along with tutoring sites online, would give each child the opportunity for the additional review all teachers agree children need.
The reduction of the use of school buses will aid the children. A program launched recently called Walk THERE explains it very nicely. The children will lose weight, be more fit, and reports are showing they are also more attentive and less prone to outbursts in class. The parents who make the commitment to the Walking School Bus are finding they are healthier, lose weight and have less depression. What more could you ask for?
Removing the school lunch program will also aid the children. These meals are typically out of the control of the nutritionist hired by the school districts, due to the food stuffs being surplus and mandated for use by the governments. This means the meals are typically high in fat, low in fiber, high sodium, high sugar and low complex carbohydrates which all make for a very difficult afternoon in the classroom. By having the nutritionist detail appropriate lunches to be sent from home, augmented by fresh fruit and vegetables in the cafeteria, the children will be healthier and far more attentive for afternoon classes. This gives the very real opportunity to have children learn the information being taught the first time around, negating any damage done by a shortened week.
Starting a vegetable garden on site would allow the children to watch the full cycle of their food, which has been proven to improve their dietary habits - from projects 35 years ago to present day. It would also allow more control over what the children eat and what is needed by them.
A program called (Neighborhood Harvest) would also be of great assistance to school food programs by utilizing local fruit grown but not harvested by private individuals. NYS has hectares of orchards that have gone almost wild that would do very well to be trimmed up and harvested for our schools, soup kitchens and food pantries. There are other sources as well, such as NY Food Exchange that would be perfect for connecting schools with growers, families with growers, etc.
This is an incredible opportunity for NYS to seize upon, revolutionizing education in ways never before imagined in ways that are already available to all. Nothing needs inventing. Nothing needs to be created. It's waiting to be utilized.
Ask your school district what it is planning on doing to create the next generation of education - something that hasn't evolved in generations.
PS - my numbers aren't based on any study or any information other than common sense and I have kept them all conservatively based.
Labels: Conserve, education, energy conservation, nys
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