Learning: ESP on the Team
Reaching Out, Sharing the Load

With schools part of every community, school employees need to make an effort to get to know parents, community, and business leaders. In Salem, Oregon, there's a school outreach coordinator on the job to do just that.

There's always something going on at Keizer (Oregon) Elementary School. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, fifth graders run the school's used book store, with the help of parent volunteers. Wednesday mornings, parents help students with the school bank. Throughout the week, volunteer "Reading Buddies," many of them retirees, read to students one-on-one as part of an early intervention program for low readers.

Then there are family activities such as Family Science Day and Hispanic Parent night. Dozens of area businesses, some of them small, some of them part of national corporations, work with the school to help meet student needs for everything from dental and vision care to clothing and shoes.

At the center of all this activity, working to bring the resources of the community together, is Keizer Elementary Community Outreach Coordinator Dixie Montgomery.

Montgomery started out as an outreach coordinator 10 years ago, when the position was first established in nine high-need elementary schools. Since then the program has been expanded, and there are now outreach coordinators at 15 local schools.

Salem-Keizer is a large school district, with 54 schools, 34,000 students, and many low-income and immigrant families. In some district schools, children and their families speak up to 15 different languages.

In this situation, close school-community relations don't just happen--they have to be built. Dixie sees herself as a "go-fer," working very closely with the principal and teachers in her school.

"I meet with them, find out what the kids need, and then I try to make it happen," she explains.

Dixie's local NEA affiliate, the Salem-Keizer Association of Classified Employees (SKACE), is a big part of Salem-Keizer's school-community partnership. Once again this year, SKACE put together a huge Read Across America day, joining political and business leaders, and hundreds of students, at the state capitol and area malls.

"More parents are working now, and it's harder for them to be involved,'' notes Montgomery. "I wish every school could afford a community school outreach position. Someone has to be looking for resources all the time."

Looking for Fairness

Dixie Montgomery's community outreach coordinator position is just one of the 128 job classifications held by the 1,600 employees in the Salem-Keizer school district.

"People don't think of jobs like community coordinator when they think of ESP," says SKACE President Janet McIntire.

SKACE recently sought NEA help on overhauling its unwieldy job classification system. Working with NEA staffer Linda James, SKACE and the school district embarked on a comprehensive study.

So far 19 job classifications have been upgraded, and a permanent joint labor-management job reclassification committee is now in place to review requests for job upgrades.

For more information, contact Linda James at NEA, 1201 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202/822-7725, ljames@nea.org.

Team Player
Modeler of Many Roles

Name: David Gibbs

Job Title: Custodian/aide, Fort Greely Elementary/Middle School, Delta Junction, Alaska

School experience: After a 22-year Army career, Gibbs began work as a special education aide in 1981, a position he held for 10 years.

NEA local affiliate: Delta/Greely ESP Association.

Association positions: I've been a member of our local bargaining team, building rep, and, for six years, a member of the local's Executive Board.

I am a member of the Human and Civil Rights Committee, a five-time representative at our local Delegate Assembly, and a statewide representative at our Representative Assembly.

I've worked with my fellow colleagues to bargain three of our four contracts. I'm also a member of our employee rights committee.

In the community: I've been involved volunteering my time with youth for most of my life. I am currently on the board of directors with our local Youth Court.

I became involved in Youth Court after seeing it in action in Anchorage. I decided to help bring it to my community. The program is important because it allows students to be lawyers and judges of their peers who are first- time offenders.

As an 11-year member of the Kiwanis Club, I've twice served as president, and I'm now the chairman of the Youth Committee. In this position, I support the Key Club at our local high school and help with community events. I also work with a retired teacher, who is a member of Kiwanis, to coordinate a scholarship for eighth grade students.

Why I do it: We know that the youth are going to be in charge of our world someday.

To be with them and help them succeed is rewarding. It's great to work with students because they are open to the information you have to pass on to them. It gives you a lift to talk to kids and to make a difference in their lives.

Honor: David Gibbs was named Alaska's 1999 ESP of the year.

Going the Extra Mile

James McCulley, a Washington Township high school maintenance worker, and Steve Cordner, a driver ed teacher, teamed up this past February to teach students how to get on the right track to driving safely.

The two gave a fascinating presentation that addressed the dangers of "street racing" and drag racing. Students even had an opportunity to check out "real" racecars, which McCulley works on in his spare time.

In March, the Alaska Association of Community Educators honored six custodial staff members who work at Soldonta Middle School for 25 years of community service activity.

Assistant Superintendent Todd Syverson told Connie Todd, Lance Roberts, Jack McGarry, Martin Galloway, Greg Reser, and John Gordon, "Thanks to your efforts, for 20-plus years, Soldotna Community Schools have thrived."

One North Carolina school is becoming a much brighter place, by the stroke of James Peck's paintbrush.

Peck, a custodian at Sedge Garden Elementary School, holds two jobs. In his spare time at night and on weekends, he enjoys painting murals of outer space, jungles, and school.

"If I could, I'd paint 365 days a year," says Peck, whose interest in art started in sixth grade.

Peck has painted some 25 murals.

"He's extremely talented," says Principal P. Gaye Weatherman, "and he's great at integrating his artwork with the standard course of study."

ESP and School Safety: What's Your Role?

NEA is now developing an information piece on the role of support staff in helping to create safe and orderly schools. If you are a support staff employee, NEA would like to get your input and recommendations, based on your personal experiences, on the best steps we can take to keep all students safe and secure.

Interested in sharing your ideas and perspectives about school safety? Here are some of the questions you'll be asked to answer if you'd like to participate in this survey effort.

To finish the survey, please point your Web browser to www.nea.org/esp/survey/.

In the questions below, school safety "incidents" refer to instances of fighting, teasing, bullying, violent behavior, or any other violation of a school's code of conduct.

• What kinds of incidents have you observed in your school? If any, did you intervene? If so, how did you handle the situation?

• What are your major concerns about school safety? Does your school have a school safety committee/team? If so, have you served on it, or are there any ESP on the committee/team? Has the committee developed any recommendations? If so, tell us about them.

• Please give us any tips, suggestions, or advice, based on your experience, for handling violence, fights, harassment, weapons, discipline.

• Please make sure you indicate your position within the school system. There are nine job categories.

If you have other information about school safety efforts at your school that might be helpful for this survey effort-- including copies of products and projects--please send this information along to the NEA Human and Civil Rights program unit at National Education Association, 1201 16th Street, N.W., Room 613, Washing-ton, DC, 20036.

Please send your material to the attention of Carmen Lopez.

Resources

Tips on Disability Etiquette
"People with disabilities are not conditions or diseases. They are individual human beings. For example, a person is not an epileptic but rather a person who has epilepsy."

This is how the on-line Disability Etiquette Handbook begins, at www.ci.sat.tx.us/planning/handbook/.

With the mainstreaming of special needs children, all school employees need to be aware of both the legal requirements of laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and of the social and conversational rules of etiquette that help ensure that students with disabilities are fully included in the school community.

The Disability Etiquette Handbook is an award-winning Web site produced by the city of San Antonio, Texas. It covers information that employers need to know, such as standards for reasonable accommodation in the workplace, as well as conversational etiquette and other material that everyone should understand.

Wisconsin Academy Expands
With the introduction of a new Level II Certificate, the Wisconsin Education Association Council has expanded the opportunities it offers ESP through the WEAC Professional Development Academy.

The five-year-old ESP Certificate Program gives support staff job-related training opportunities leading to a certificate that recognizes their accomplishment.

In some cases, employers provide financial incentives for employees to pursue the certificate. The incentives may come in the form of a salary bonus, salary increase, or payment of tuition for classes.

More than 4,000 ESPs are now working towards a certificate, with about 25 enrolled in the Level II program.

The Academy is also helping other states create their own Association-run support staff certification programs.

For more information, contact Debra Berndt at WEAC, P.O. Box 8003, Madison, WI 53708, phone 800/362-8034 ext. 294, E-mail BerndtD@weac.org.

School Bus Seatbelts
School Transportation News Online (www.stnonline.com) reports that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is opposed to the use of two-point lap belts in school buses.

Notes the group's 1999 status report: "Although they [lap belts] can reduce the risk of ejection, they can also increase head injury potential in frontal crashes... If belts are to be mandated, they should be designs that include upper torso restraints."

Five states currently require the use of seat belts on school buses.

STN Online is a "portal to the world of school transportation."

A Disabilities Resource
Looking for information on AD/HD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder)? Or perhaps you need a fact sheet on Tourette's Syndrome, or a guide to the IEP process for parents. If you work with students with disabilities or with their families, consider putting NICHCY, the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, on your short list of places to turn for help: www.nichcy.org/.

NICHCY is a national information and referral center that provides information on disabilities and disability-related issues for families, educators, and other professionals. It maintains an extensive list of publications in Spanish and English, which are available on-line, as well as referrals and links to other sources of help. Visit the NICHNY Web site at www.nichcy.org, or contact them at NICHCY, P.O. Box 1492, Washington, DC 20013, 1-800-695-0285, E-mail: nichny@aed.org.