(Great site! You can make a huge difference in a classroom near you, or far from you, if you wish. Teachers create projects that need funding-usually a couple hundred $$ total-and you read through and help fund them. $5 here or there adds up to a lot of students and teachers getting their needs met and wishes granted. Many of the projects are for educational rugs for carpet time in elementary classes, or books for classroom libraries, or specific school supplies, technology such as document cameras or LCD projectors, etc.)
This specific project is for a teacher whose classroom windows are mostly bolted shut, with no A/C. She said her classroom regularly reached 95 degrees or higher in the early fall and again in the spring. And at first I thought I wanted to help fund the project. But then Jerry and I talked about it, talked about all of the things teachers ask for that you'd think the district would provide (you'd be wrong about that), and we had some strong feelings about this project. So we decided to do something. I wrote the following email to the Baltimore Public School Board and the Baltimore Sun newspaper:
Hi, I am a former teacher from Florida. I was looking through some projects to consider funding on donorschoose.org. I came across a teacher at Edmondson high school in Baltimore who had created a project (halfway funded already!) to get fans for her classroom. She explained on her project page that broken windows were commonly bolted shut and there is no air conditioning in the school building. She also stated that her classroom regularly got past the 95 degree mark in early fall and again in the spring. This teacher wants 4 fans to create some air circulation so that her students can concentrate better.
My initial reaction was to help fund the project. But my husband and I got to talking about it, and we are both pretty floored at the situation. Is the school district that broke that they have to bolt windows shut instead of fixing them and/or can't provide adequate fans?
I'm not from Baltimore, but I live in a school district with plenty of problems. I also taught at a school in a low income area for several years, so I'm not phased by many of the seeming necessities that fall by the wayside. But air circulation and indoor school environments such as the one at Edmondson HS seem like one of those necessities that shouldn't be ignored.
I have to think that it's true, seeing as how it's an active project on a pretty well known fundraising website. But I also want to doubt it, because I don't want this to really be happening in any classroom in America.
Here is the project page:
http://www.donorschoose.org/
project/be-a-fan-of-english-
Thank you for your time and expertise,
Lisa Watterson
Do I think anything will happen? Probably not. But now I know the people who should be taking care of this actually know about it. And I'm going to keep an eye on Ms. Guldin's project. But wouldn't it be great if the school board actually put in windows that open? A girl can dream...
UPDATE:
I received the following email from the education beat writer at the Baltimore Sun:
Hi:
I can't say that I know it is true because I haven't been in her classroom, but I do know that there's a well documented crisis in the state of the buildings. The City Council has just passed a bottle tax to try to provide more money for construction and renovation of buildings. The ACLU did a lengthy report on some alternative funding options that could be used to renovate buildings and the school system recently released a report that said about $2 billion is needed to renovate buildings. In Baltimore City and Baltimore County, only about half of schools are air-conditioned.
Could I excerpt part of your email in a blog post for our blog, Inside Ed?
Thanks,
Liz
I haven't seen anything on the blog Inside Ed. In fact, it appears to have not been updated since March, but perhaps I'm just confused. If I hear anything else, I will I will update this post again.
I have not heard a peep from the Baltimore Public School Board. Hmmmm....
Good for you!
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