Community education: Keeping the lights on in our schools

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, Nov 26, 2008

In October I got a phone call from a newspaper columnist. Not unusual in my role with the school district, but this reporter was calling from Pennsylvania.

He introduced himself as David Knepper, a columnist with the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. He had two questions for me: 1) What is this thing called Community Education, and 2) Why doesn't every school district in the country have it?

Whew! I hoped he had an unlimited long distance phone budget, because I could have talked for hours about the benefits of community education. Knepper is a retired superintendent who now writes on community and education issues. His premise for the column was that schools should open up their facilities for use by the local citizens for learning, recreation, and community involvement. He was singing my tune. But I'll let you read what he wrote for yourself:

"For the past decade, from the corner coffee shop to the kitchen table, Americans have not given high grades to public education nationwide. Perhaps the answer might lie outside the walls of education.

More than ever, successful schools have come to recognize the interdependency on strong community support to meet mandated state and national performance standards, develop innovative programs, and secure financial resources.

The process of building such partnerships is an ongoing, two-way communication process between a school and the community it serves. Education is viewed as a birth-to-death process, and everyone in the community – individuals, businesses and public and private agencies – shares in the responsibility of educating all members of the community and providing lifelong learning opportunities for learners of all ages, backgrounds and needs.

One of the most successful ways to achieve such a relationship is to develop a community education program.

The educational philosophy that underlies community schools advocates the creation of opportunities for community participants, namely individuals, businesses and both public and private organizations, to become partners in addressing community needs.

A community education program is established outside the traditional school day for the purpose of providing academic, recreation, health, social service and work-preparation programs for people of all ages.

Investing in our communities through educational outreach and intergenerational learning should be our priorities. Community education can be that gateway to improve student achievement when the “whole village comes together to help children learn.”

Let’s keep the lights on in our schools to facilitate the learning and participation of adults and children so they can improve their lives and their communities."

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc. by David Knepper, Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, October 31, 2008

To read the entire article, you can follow this link:

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/archivesearch/local_story_305110748.html

Be thankful that Kerrville ISD does something no school in Pennsylvania has yet done: offer community education.

See you in class.

XXX

To learn more about our lifelong learning classes, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

50 back seat drivers

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, Nov 19, 2008

Can you imagine taking 50 friends for a drive to look at Christmas lights? That is what happens every fall on Club Ed's Hill Country Lighting Tour. It is second nature to Don Ball, our longtime tour host and owner/operator of Si Texas Tours. To Ball, a seat on his bus is the best seat in the house.

"In a car, you sit low and look up," he said. "On my bus, you sit high and look out. It is an unrestricted view - you know you are going to see the best of the best."

Ball has been driving buses since 1973. He never tires of escorting travelers to all the popular destinations, and he can recite all the reasons people prefer to travel by bus.

"A lot of seniors don't like to drive at night; big cities are easy to get lost in; people don't want the hassle; when they take the bus, they leave the driving to us."

Ball believes that people also like the fellowship of traveling with a group. On board his 45-foot, climate-controlled 54-seat cruiser, riders travel in comfort.

"Many people think of that old yellow school bus they rode 50 years ago," Ball said. "It was not very comfortable. But when get on a motor coach costing a half million dollars, you get a different perspective. You can recline, plug in your headphones and watch TV, or just visit with your neighbor. You can't do that while driving a car."

Ball also hosts Club Ed's Holiday Barge Ride, where passengers cruise San Antonio's famous Riverwalk and see the Christmas lights from a different perspective - being able to see lots of lighting they couldn't ordinarily view unless they did a whole lot of walking.

At Club Ed, Ball has watched the profiles of his passengers evolve over the years. He notes that "today's 50 is yesterday's 70." That is, he sees more people retiring in their 50s, with the resources and time to get around more.

Even as he approaches the 3 million mile mark, Ball never tires of driving. But he does mention one special challenge.

"If you have four people in your car, you have three backseat drivers," he said. "I have 50 back seat drivers!"

He still enjoys it.

"In the bus industry, everybody buys the same piece of equipment; it's what kind of service you give people," he said. "You meet the best people in the world this way. Yes, sir, that's why I do it."

XXX

Club Ed is offering two holiday travel opportunities: The Hill Country Christmas Lighting Tour on Dec 13, and the Christmas Barge Ride on the Riverwalk on Dec 17. There is also time to sign up for the trip to China scheduled for next April. To learn more about these and other lifelong learning classes, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.

Crawl onto the Web

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal, Nov 5, 2008

A web site is never finished.

So we decided to do something about it.

A few years ago, we noticed more of our computer students wanted to build their own web sites to sell products or services online.

So Club Ed came up with a whole new level of training. We called it Web Site Development & Design. We made it intensive and expensive. And it has been so successful that in a few years we have trained dozens of individuals.

Christie Kitchens, who has more than 30 years experience in graphic design, web development, and software instruction, developed and teaches the course.

She realized as early as the 1980s that business marketing was moving from "cut and paste" to "point and click."

"Having a business that is not on the web, is a little like having no phone," she said. "You need 'click and order' instead of 'brick and mortar.'"

A lot of businesses agreed. Club Ed has trained dozens of individuals and organizations, selling everything from knives to landscaping to land to furniture to jewelry. Clients have come from England and Canada. One Alaskan takes a refresher every year during his "Winter Texan" phase.

Kitchens' approach is two-fold. First, she helps students set up and design an initial web presence. This includes securing a domain name and establishing a hosting site. She also helps develop the "look" of the web page - a graphic presentation that is attractive and effective.

The key to the class success however, is that during the course of training, the client learns the basic skills needed to maintain the web site on their own - the student is able to add and change photos and text as needed. This saves money and gives the client more control of their web presence.

"She makes you take the mouse and do it," said one client. "So I feel it is mine, rather than something she did for me while I watched."

Even as the economy surges and ebbs, the web will continue to grow as a way for businesses and organizations to push their products out into the marketplace. It is fast, easy, efficient, effective, and cost-effective.

And it is working.

"When they post that first page and see it up in the browser they are so excited," Kitchens said. "They all go, man this is awesome!' They did something and got it on the web. That is a 'eureka' moment."

Oh. I was kidding about the "expensive" part. The cost is actually less than many firms charge just to design your web site.

As one student said, "We thought it was worth the investment to buy the software and learn to use it, as opposed to paying someone to do site for us. We are always going to be changing the site as we add inventory and change seasons. We wanted to do that ourselves."

I told you a web site is never finished!

XXX

The Web Site Development class is set up according to the student's schedule. To learn more about this and hundreds of other lifelong learning classes, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com.