Self-Help

I have mentioned (and will go into this deeper when I write about the Board Work Session on BTA III) about the huge backlog of maintenance in our district. Charlie also asked about what parents can and cannot do within their buildings that might fall under maintenance.

I recently had a good conversation with Mark Pflueger who is the Maintenance Manager. What he said on the subject of parent help is (1) they would love it and (2) it needs to go through the district's Self Help department headed by Gretchen deDecker, 252-0637 or gdedecker@seattleschools.org

Never heard of them? That's the subject of this thread.

From the Facilities department's Self Help webpage:

The Self Help Program is located within the Facilities Planning section of the Facilities Dept. Self Help is responsible for the coordination of review, approval, tracking and oversight of all facility improvement projects that are done by some one other than Seattle School District staff.

Self Help project is: a project to improve District buildings or grounds which is done by anyone or any group other than District Maintenance, Grounds, Capital and/or Technology staff.

Some examples of a Self Help project are: painting a classroom, installing new playground equipment, creating a mural, landscape renovation, and developing a garden.

All Self Help projects require prior approval by the Seattle School District Self Help Team to assure the project:
  • is appropriate for our buildings and grounds
  • complements programs taught in our schools
  • is completed to District standards
  • provides record drawings
Now, Charlie asked about things like replacing a window pane or fixing a faucet. That may be trickier. I am hoping to speak with Gretchen about the scope of what can happen. It might be that parents can do more but with district supervision (but that supervision would have to be paid for).

For example, all Roosevelt's art (and remember we started in 1922 so there are many items) was taken down during our remodel but not put back. Parents were not allowed to put items back up (although some did mysteriously get up in some offices) in the hallways. We were told the school had to pay the district to do it.

Now I get this in terms of district maintenance time. Hanging art is the last on the list to be sure but why can't parents, following district guidelines (i.e. earthquake safety)? There are so many small but niggling jobs that I'm sure both staff and parents would love to see done at their schools but fall so far down on maintenance that it could take all year (or years) to get done.

What sort of tasks/jobs have you seen at your school that you think parents could handle so I can ask Gretchen about as many different kinds of jobs as possible?

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
The NOVA community worked with Ms deDecker when doing our landscape improvement project and was very pleased with the cooperation.
9/5/09, 6:04 PM
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