Learning: ESP on the Team
This ‘Custodial Technician’ Really Gets Technical

Though his title might read custodian, Pennsylvania NEA member Jim Verazin also doubles as his school district's Web site designer.

When school officials in one Pennsylvania district looked into creating a Web site, they didn't have to go far. School custodian Jim Verazin had already designed one for his school.

Jim Verazin's the first to admit he's "a computer nut." And that's why this Pennsylvania school custodian ended up creating his school districts Web site. In the spring of 1997, Verazin, who had worked with computers for 20 years, began spending time on a personal project: putting together his own unofficial Web page for his school, the Greater Nanticoke Area Education Center, a new middle school in an economically depressed area 10 miles south of Wilkes-Barre.

Gradually, Verazin expanded the scope of his site until it included information from all the districts schools. Then, last June, the local school board recognized Verazin's volunteer efforts by "adopting" his site as the district's own, a move that allowed Verazin to move the site to its current address on the district's server: www.gnasd.com.

The middle school pages Verazin has created include everything from schedules for 7th grade dances to links for Web homework resources.

Verazin has started working with a high school student who'll be taking over maintaining the GNA high school pages. The student is new to Web authoring, and Verazin is mentoring him as he learns.

The district's teachers, many of them new to using the Internet, are also benefiting from Verazin's help. In the site's "Classrooms" section, for instance, there's space for a Web page for each teacher's classroom. Verazin does more than just post information teachers supply him. He finds additional Web resources for teachers and shows them how to use these.

"I'm trying to create a competition among the teachers to see who has the best Web page," he says.

Verazin is currently president of the 70-member Greater Nanticoke Area Educational Support Personnel Association. The job title listed for him on the site is "custodial technician." He doesn't like the title "custodian" and likes "janitor" even less. And it's not just because he's a computer expert for his school district.

"When someone says 'janitor' you think of a guy with a cigar pushing a broom," he laughs. "But there's so much technology involved in school buildings now that we all have to be technicians."

Behind the Scenes
Jim Verazin isn't the only Web-savvy ESP member out there. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, the Gwinnett Bus Drivers Association is venturing into cyberspace with the support of a 1999 ESP Technology Grant from NEA. GDBA represents 1,000 ESP. Check out the site at http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/atl/d/m/dm9165/.

Team Player
Printing to Perfection

Florida's Elena Loftus believes her print shop can do a better job than an outside firm, so she's fighting the district's contracting out scheme.

Name: Elena Loftus

Job title: printer for Escambia County School District in Pensacola, Florida; local, Escambia Education Support Personnel Association (EESPA)

Experience: 17 years

What I do: Sixty-six schools and special centers order from the print shop, so our job is never done. We print color and black-and-white, covering every format from newsletters and newspapers to magazines and school programs. In addition, we print a lot of forms that the state requires of schools.

How I help students achieve: One very direct way is through a program called DCT that offers part-time positions to high school students as well as college students. In the program, students bind, collate, and stitch different types of formats. Students are then able to learn work ethics and get job experience. I always hope we teach them something valuable.

How I team up with my colleagues: The print shop has just seven workers, so it's very important that every print job is a collaborative enterprise.

We recently faced a difficult challenge when a management study concluded that the print shop should be done away with. We decided to check into the study and found problems with it, including some information that was just plain false.

Because of our actions and the support of the community, a committee is now in place to study the benefits of in-house printing versus outsourcing the work.

As a team, we save the school district thousands of dollars. We're always looking for new ways of doing our jobs. If we weren't able to do our jobs more efficiently, we wouldn't be able to do the amount of work that we do.

Going the Extra Mile

Michael Gaul, food service director for the Colorado River (Arizona) Union High School District, received the Arizona Education Association's 1999 ESPecially for Kids Award for a simple recipe with lots of ingredients.

In a culinary arts class of his creation, Gaul teaches 20 special ed students how to work cafeteria machinery and cook dishes like chicken florentine, steamed spinach, and apple upside-down cake.

The food is so good that his students cater community events and even operate Le Bistro, their own restaurant at Mohave High School. It's open to the public at various times throughout the year.

The ingredients: To get the restaurant off the ground, special ed students did the cooking, a shop class built the woodwork, a creative writing class wrote the menu, while French students translated it. A business class tackled Le Bistro's books.

"My philosophy," says Gaul, "is that because there is so much in the kitchen that needs to be done--chopping, baking, even paperwork--there is a job for everyone."

The Texas State Teachers Association doesn't mess around when it hands out its Ronnie Ray ESP of the Year Award. The 1999 winner, Wretha Thomas, is being recognized for leading her fellow Houston support staffers from near-degradation to dignity.

Thomas started organizing transportation, maintenance, and food service workers in 1987 because they lacked benefits and job security. Within six months, membership of Houston Educational Support Personnel grew from 50 to 850.

"There was such a great need for the ESP to know someone was speaking for them," recalls this activist, now full-time-release president of HESP.

Among the dividends to date of Houston ESP organizing: five sick days per year, an annual ESP Day commemoration, five seats on the district's consultation panel for unions, and an open-door policy with the superintendent and school board.

Learn 1,000 student names. Work with 78 teachers and four administrators. Answer the phone non-stop from 6:45 a.m. until 3:15 p.m.

Work like this would put years on most of us. But it hasn't dented Cheryl Smith, a secretary at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio.

"I love kids. I love the people I work with," she says, "and the work makes me stay very young."

Smith, the Ohio Education Association's 1999 School Support Person of the Year, helps students understand both secretarial and real estate work--because she's also a part-time real estate agent. She often talks to the school's Everyday Living class.

And Smith always has time to help her colleagues. She holds several Association positions, including local secretary and member of the local labor-management committee.

Smith is especially proud of helping bring ESP into OEA 10 years ago.

"It's the best thing we ever did!" she says.

Know an ESP member who deserves recognition in NEA Today? Send all the details, including the person's job title and school district, to ESPInput@list.nea.org.

Resources

Technology for Diverse Learners
A technology pilot program in Minnesota turns around the academic careers of a group of at-risk students. A New Jersey teacher uses technology to help teach English to a class of students who speak 22 different languages.

These and other success stories are reported in Technology for Diverse Learners, a new book from the NEA Professional Library.

When it comes to teaching ESL and at-risk students, the book points out, computers and video technology succeed where traditional methods fall short.

The 96-page book offers six stories about NEA members who are using technology to connect with students who are difficult to reach. It should prove valuable to all support staff who work with at-risk students.

Copies are $9.95 (the special discounted NEA member price), plus $3.50 s&h. To order, call the NEA Professional Library at 800/229-4200 and ask for stock #2908-9-00-WB, or check out the NEA Professional Library online at www.nea.org/books.

No More 'Mystery Meat'
School lunches are looking (and tasting) different this year at California's Berkeley Unified School District. High fat and high calorie foods are out, and a broader selection of fresh foods, including vegetarian and organic options, are in. Berkeley's new school food policy also calls for the elimination of irradiated and genetically altered foods from school menus.

Some of the organic food comes from California farmers' markets, while some is being raised in the school's own gardens. The nonprofit Berkeley Food Systems Project is helping the school district raise money to purchase organic food, create the school gardens, and train teachers to incorporate garden lessons into their classrooms.

Read more about Berkeley's new food service program on the district's Web site.

The School Privatization Scene
Many colleges and universities may be embracing privatization, but K-12 schools aren't rushing to follow suit.

American School & University magazine's 6th Privatization/Contract Services Survey has found that 21.7 percent of school districts do not outsource any services, compared to 12.3 percent in 1997, while only 5.3 percent of colleges do not outsource.

At the same time, some school districts are increasing the extent of their privatization.

A summary of the report, with supporting tables, is on the Web at www.asumag.com/privatiz99.htm. The K-12 part of the report is $45. Order online or call 913/341-1300; fax 913/967-1898.