Behind the Door, Part ll

There’s life in the old gal yet. This gal:

Back about a million years ago, in late February, I wrote about the present state of the Columbia Flier building. (“Behind the Door” “On the Inside”) Not even a month later, the scene is a bit different.

The seasons change even as we stay inside. Spring has arrived and pink petals carpet the sidewalks leading to the doors.

Something else has changed. The school supplies that Board of Education member Vicky Cutroneo has been gathering there for use in schools have taken on a new purpose. In a quick change of plan, Ms. Cutroneo is getting those materials out to the HCPSS Grab & Go meal sites to support the work of Columbia Community Care.

In addition, Ms. Cutroneo has reached out to friends and neighbors for additional materials to supplement her cache:

Local friends: Whilst cleaning out and organizing your closets and basements... if you come across board games, educational games, unused coloring books, packs of crayons...

I am interested. Please drop off on my porch or I can pick up from your porch.

Here’s what comes next: the materials are quarantined in the Flier building to ensure no living virus is present, then sanitized before distribution to the sites where Columbia Community Care has set up supplemental assistance for families: Swansfield ES, Lake Elkhorn MS/Cradlerock ES, Howard HS, Oakland Mills MS, Wilde Lake MS.

“I dropped off blank journals and a teacher told me they were a huge hit. Kids want to write about stuff and many don’t have the materials to write,” said Cutroneo.

So, even though the Columbia Flier building is doing nothing, it’s helping in its own quirky way. It’s the quarantine site for art materials, school supplies, games, and craft items so that they will be safe to share with those who need them. Of course that takes creative thinking and dedicated effort from Ms. Cutroneo and the generosity and goodwill of community members committed to sharing from whatever abundance they have.

If you want to assist Ms. Cutroneo in her mission I’m guessing you can reach her through her BOE email (vicky_cutroneo@hcpss.org ) to arrange a no-contact porch pickup.

To support Columbia Community Care through a monetary donation, time and talent, or gifts in kind of food and household necessities, go to the Columbia Community Care Group on Facebook , or reach out to Erika Strauss Chavarria through her HCPSS email: erika_trasschavarria@hcpss.org .

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog