Enhancing Education

Speaking of giving our students the best education possible, there is quite a bit of untapped potential by partnering with organizations, businesses and individuals to identify and develop new programs.  I’ve talked quite a bit about the Kings Local program that combines academics, information and community support in one program.  Last night, I talked with a chemist who had to take early retirement from his job.  He has done a number of programs in the schools for both chemistry and physics classes, and he hopes to put together a program he can do on his own.  I’ve put together two programs to support 6th grade writing:  a persuasive essay column contest in conjunction with the Advertiser & about a dozen community members that last year (and hopefully again this year) was part of all the elementary schools’ honors curriculum (requires no funding); and an extra-curricular, self-funded newspaper program where the kids write & publish their own newspaper.

There are other ways the community is supporting our schools as well.  For instance, Milford Christian Church gave bags of classroom supplies to each elementary teacher at the start of this school year.

There are lots more examples out there that I just don’t know about.  What have you heard about?  What ideas do you have?  As we face more uncertainty with budgets, the more support we can receive from partnerships, the better off we will be.