Many of the greatest achievements in public schools are recorded at no cost to taxpayers. Volunteers, by taking their expertise and elbow grease onto campuses, provide countless benefits to students and teachers. Whether working as mentors, classroom assistants, program sponsors or guest speakers, or just donating a smile, a listening ear and a few hours a year to a lunch buddies program, volunteers are invaluable.
Just ask the kids. Many likely will agree that, when a volunteer walks into a classroom or onto the school grounds, it’s refreshing to see a new face and hear a new point of view. Middle-school students, particularly, love listening to adults who are neither their parents nor their teachers. And other outside influences (we’re talking money here) often arrive in the form of grants, many presented from the private sector.
But organizing school volunteer programs and coordinating outside funding sources is not always as easy as it might seem. Sometimes interference creeps in from a source one would expect to be supportive. This happened two years ago when a lucrative statewide grant (organized thanks to the hard work of Vancouver’s Marcia and Bill Fromhold) was suffocated by the Washington Education Association, the teachers union. And last month in Tacoma, a large volunteer effort was snuffed out, largely due to conflicts with policies anchored in union contracts.
More than 100 volunteers were to have participated in “Comcast Cares Day” at Tacoma’s Fawcett Elementary School. According to The News Tribune, elaborate plans were made, and the volunteers’ work list was approved on March 15. They were to donate time and energy to such projects as clearing brush from a hillside at the school and painting rooms.
The first obstruction came from the union representing buildings and grounds workers, whose contract allows them to object to volunteer labor in their particular areas of work. And in this case, they objected.
But the union was not the lone culprit. The News Tribune reports that communication between school officials and the Comcast volunteers deteriorated as the project day neared. School administrators voiced legitimate concerns about liability for any damage or injuries caused by the brush-clearing machinery. They also grew hesitant on the painting project, as similar work by previous volunteers was performed incorrectly and had to be redone at the public’s expense.
So, the volunteers’ best intentions were never allowed to flourish. The frustration resembled what was felt in 2008 with the collapse of the $13.2 million grant to expand Advanced Placement classes in high schools. AP classes accelerate students’ progress toward college. The Fromholds had coordinated the gift from the Texas-based National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). Because the state teachers union abhors increased pay for some teachers but not all, and because the union couldn’t sink its managerial claws into this private-sector source, our state lost out. Meanwhile, six other states received their NMSI grants, much to the chagrin of our state’s potential AP students and their parents.
Two lessons emerge from the Comcast and NMSI stories. First, when it comes to public involvement in public schools, there’s no such thing as overcommunicating. It’s vital to coordinate projects and gifts with administrators and to constantly keep those communication lines open.
Second, although failure of a project might discourage volunteers and donors, giving up should not be considered an option. Try again later, because these benefits to schools and taxpayers are too valuable to abandon.
