Raise the Hammer

Political Parties and School Board Closures, Delta dorms, school business leases, and System Schools

So what does NDP have to do with this, Trey? If anything, I would think it's a 'let's pave over the escarpment' kinda move to relocate to a car-centric area of our city?

I have no problems with the fact that we need to cut costs but we simply have to stop looking at yesterday's solutions.

Any reason public schools have never looked at turning a large school like Delta into partly dorms for during the week? Any apartment renting teachers feel like living at the school to save on rent and make some extra cash monitoring student activity overnight? How do private schools manage this? Maybe it's a more expensive solution? You would need a late night cafeteria or parents could send/bring meals to school for the week.

Not sure how I would feel about this. I'd miss my kids terribly (I think anyway ;-) , but wondering if it might be a good life experience for them. Kids need independence. Perhaps some of the parent/child purse strings should be loosened earlier? Maybe it would help strengthen the bonds and appreciation between parents and their kids?

Maybe the slow transition out of the family home in high school, would better prepare them for the sudden freedom switch from grade 12 to post secondary. Kids need jobs too. What could they be doing in the evenings at the school? Janitorial? Cafeteria for dinner hours? Cleaning chalkboards if they still exist.

Encourage kids to do their own laundry in a new basement facility. Turn the automotive bays into an actual repair shop. Auto students could work there until 6 or whenever the shop closes. Work during spares or for a few hours after school. They both learn about taking care of themselves by cooking, working, and doing their own laundry doing the week, and be given the respect of a little freedom.

Maybe the teachers monitor to ensure homework is done? Periodic checks for alcohol in the rooms and no smoking aloud of course. Maybe kids have to have good marks or other such rewards to be given the freedoms of living on 'campus'.

I'd like to see us try this system school idea that was put together. Maybe even something as dramatic as what I have proposed with Delta above. Look outside the box and explore a few options and then see how that might change some of these drastic solutions. Even look into expanding what we have tried at Central with the insurance company leasing it. Let's put the call out. Maybe even just 1-2 year leases to give us some time before we make the 'can't be undone' decisions that will take away any future space for schools if and when, demographics ever change.

Comment edited by lawrence on 2012-02-17 11:05:46