Collaborations assist education

by GEOFF ANDREWS

Oberlin schools superintendent

We recently updated a simple brochure for each school in Oberlin. As part of that process, we created a listing of partnerships benefiting the schools and the children of the district. It is remarkable how many people and organizations pitch in to help our students learn and grow.

Some of the partnerships the schools and students enjoy are established and fairly well known, such as the Ninde program, the Listening Post, Grandparents Readers, the OC Scholarship program, the America Reads and America Counts programs, SITES (Spanish in the Elementary Schools), WAVE (Words are very Empowering), Girls in Motion (and more recently the addition of Boys in Motion) at Langston, the Kindercamp (DuBois) project, the OCEAN program (Oberlin College support for college credit awarded for classes taught in high school), the after-school and summer Oberlin Recreation program, field trips to Allen Art Museum, and access to the Boys and Girls Club, classes at FAVA and the Bridge, and many activities at the Oberlin Public Library, to name but a few.

However, there are also some newer examples of collaboration and cooperation that deserve mention.

How could anyone traveling Main Street in the morning not see the new school signs the city installed to announce the school zone? The previous sign was obscured by trees and a utility pole, but this new one, with LED (very low energy, and extraordinarily bright) lighting will alert drivers from a block away.

And just in case that is not enough of a warning, the city has also graciously located (on a trial basis) a crossing guard at the intersection of 58 and 511, to increase safety for students crossing that busy intersection.

Dovetailing with the district's Safe Routes to Schools grant that we are implementing with the city, these two developments are welcomed, increasing the safety threshold for students. The city and the school board are also considering collaborating on a study of our respective parks, recreation and athletic facilities, to better leverage our resources and serve our constituencies.

The schools and students have also been beneficiaries of the work done by citizens, city employees and college folks to make Community Day and the International Cultural Festival such great Saturdays in October. Over the weekend the city hosted a Halloween parade, followed immediately by a parent-initiated fundraiser for the eighth grade Washington D.C. trip, which was in turn followed by downtown merchant trick or treating, which led to the community wide trick or treating in the neighborhoods. It was a day worthy of a movie, and we are working together to create opportunities for our high school students to show their own movies in the newly renovated Apollo Theater sometime next year.

Speaking of the college, they have been helpful partners, too, assisting our students in various ways.

In October, the OHS Boosters and the OC Athletics office collaborated on two doubleheader soccer matches. Our high school boys soccer team played a home match on the OC soccer field, one of the finest fields in Ohio. Following a post-game barbecue for both the Oberlin and visiting teams, the OC men's soccer team played the second half of the doubleheader. A week later, the OHS girls soccer team enjoyed the same kind of event, complete with barbecue and OC women's game.

Also in October, I had the opportunity to meet with some energetic OC students to line up more tutoring and mentoring relationships.

Tamara Fingal, an OC student (and former IB student in high school) invited me to African Heritage house to speak with a group of students about the needs in the schools. By the next day (and this was a 10 p.m. meeting!) she had produced 30 volunteers who are signed up to help our after-school "success tables" at the high school and the middle school, making sure our athletes and others who would like the support have access to subject-specific tutoring.

Another enhanced partnership this year is that some of our high school students have been able to leverage the Oberlin College Language Lab, and have greater access to the OC library system. Through this partnership our students have greater access to sophisticated language tools and to a wider group of language speakers from around the world.

One final partnership to report on is an interim snapshot of the Community Giving Campaign, which includes the participation rates and giving from the college, the city, and the schools. Oberlin College participation is up to 8 percent, which is about two-thirds of last year's total, and the amount raised is more than half of last year's total of $31,775. Fifty school employees have participated, which is 102 percent of last year's total, raising $3,892, about 70 percent of last year's total. The city's participation rate is 4 percent, which is more than half of last year's total, raising $2,235, which is 68 percent of last year's total