Rant: Key Communicator

A few weeks ago, DD12's school admin asked me if I wanted to be on a parent list and I said OK. This what happens when you go to the office too often to find out why your kid is failing math.

(It's because she sits next to a disruptive kid, to whom she cannot stop responding. Now that she sits next to a quiet kid, she is doing much better.)

Apparently, I am now a Key Communicator:

"...a network of people who are well-connected to both the schools and the community. The idea is to promote a continuing two-way exchange of information between key communicators and the school district."

That means I get pre-recorded phone messages when there is violence at the high school. Since mid-October, there was a minor stabbing, a guard shot with a pellet gun, and an attack by a disgruntled drop-out that was refused re-entry but managed to wander from class to class for hours until she encountered and beat up an old rival.

(Is it any wonder we have my 10th grader cyberschooling from home?)

At first, I thought this "two-way exchange" meant they had made me an official Complainer, to give them feedback from other parents where there are problems. But then I got invited to a dinner...

The dinner was held at the brand-new school that DD12's class moved into on Monday, a magnet school for Agriculture, Science, and Ecology. Good concept, and shiny new building, but I haven't seen a lot of meaningful content yet. At least, not communicated to parents. I am sure I am spoiled by having homeschooled. I can't get used to the curriculum being invisible to me.

The dinner was eerie and corporate. I was greeted at the door by a security guy that looked more like a butler. There was a uniformed ROTC color guard and the Pledge of Allegiance. I counted about 100 seats at round tables in the cafetorium. I sat at a table with our principal, his wife, his mother, the school admin and her assistant, and two other parent "Key Communicators." There were introductions: the Superintendent acknowledged his "cabinet" of top administrators, and the elected School Board Directors, the architectural firm reps for the project, the Mayor, and the principals of the two schools that will be housed in the building. Everyone chortled about their success. At first, I thought the "success" was the dinner itself! I thought, "Wow, they have low expectations." Then I realized that the dinner was to celebrate the spending of $4M to produce this school building. There were very visible displays of sucking up to the Superintendent, accompanied by insider jokes about ordering new office furniture.

The President of the Board showed up very late, and couldn't figure out how to get in the building. (I happened to be out in the hall, listening to the Superintendent tersely giving her instructions through doors and hallways - boy, was he annoyed.) She then proceeded to re-introduce the School Board, exclaiming that the school was only built because the Board had done a lot of work and made a lot of hard decisions. No one stopped her to tell her they had already been thanked during the speeches. I suppose it was a political ritual being played out.

(No one thanked the children who waited in cramped temporary quarters while the construction went almost three months overtime. No one thanked the teachers who tried to teach in hallways and auditoriums. No one thanked the parents, who dealt with the confusion, the crappy bus service, and the lack of teacher contact. No one thanked the taxpayers who will pay for the building.)

The phrase, "It's all for the children," was repeated often, along with things like "Every day, in every way, things are getting better for the children." But there was not a child in sight.

I couldn't tell if there were any teachers, but it didn't seem so - perhaps a union rep that was not introduced. Thousands of dollars spent on catering, an elaborate over-sized cake, rented tables and linens, centerpieces, and gift bags full of custom-imprint schwag. (Gift bags?!) There were black imprinted bags and red ones. I got a black one that had a Post-It note portfolio with "Key Communicator" printed on it - and a imprinted pen, and an imprinted 2Gb flash drive, an imprinted mug full of imprinted M&Ms, and a glossy embossed folder full of info that is already on the website. I wonder what the red bags had in them.

The food was nice - fruit and cheese board with Brie. Good rolls. Salad with raspberry vinaigrette (pretty dated in catering, but still new to some of my tablemates). Three entrees: Pork Loin with Bearnaise, Baked Chicken, and a pasta with clam sauce and lots of shrimp. Cottage potatoes and green beans. Coffee service with the cake. All nice catered buffet food.

We were invited to tour the building between dinner and cake, unguided wandering through empty classrooms. It was nice, but only the kids can put it to the test. The other two parents gushed. "If all schools were like this, all the kids would be geniuses!" I disagree; buildings are important, but not nearly as important as people. People like parents, kids, and teachers - almost none of whom were at the dinner.

I've been involved with the public sector before. I know this is how "business" is done. And make no mistake, a school district is big business - fifth largest employer in the county, and one of the few organizations currently putting up new buildings. Those architects and general contrators would have knelt and licked shoes, if asked. There are more buildings to be built. The financing is already in place.

The Supervisor, hired by an elected Board, is the CEO of that organization. A little round pink-and-white man, he rules a school district that is 80% non-white. Only a third of the Board is non-white - no one is Hispanic, despite the fact that more than half the city is Hispanic, and about 75% of the kids. A good number of school-level staff seem to be black or Hispanic, with several minority principals. This is probably one of the few places it is not hard for a qualified black or Hispanic man to get hired, in this conservative county. Teachers are from a separate unionized country, and not invited to dine.

I was dismayed by the blatant lack of church-school separation. We were asked to bow our heads and listen to the Deputy Superintendent lead us in a plea to Jesus, rather than a non-denominational inspirational message. The staff dutifully thanked Jesus. The Supervisor also thanked him in his speech. No wonder they have trouble separating school activities from the afterschool proselytizing of the Good News Club. They send home applications for church clubs with every kid.

This is how I would have preferred to see the "success" of the new school celebrated:

- Run a food drive, where the classroom that brings in the most food gets to cut the ribbon on the school. The food is bundled into baskets for families identified by the guidance department.

- Announce an essay contest for magnet school students, on some topical theme. The winner gets a cash prize and his/her family gets to come to the dinner with him.

- Eat simpler food (let the adults eat that crap the kids eat every day!) and use the catering money to run a contest for teachers to submit innovative lesson plans. The winners get their projects funded. I bet a lot of teachers could do wonderful things with $1000. That dinner was probably worth 2 or 3 projects.

- Run a reading contest, and the classroom that reads the most books gets money to be spent on library materials the class helps choose.

- Have an elected committee of kids choose a Class Gift from this first 6th grade to the next. A piece of statuary, or perhaps new trees, or a bike rack.

- Figure out a way to extend the celebration to more than three parents. This school and every school in the district has huge difficulty getting low-income parents to get involved in school events. People work, or have younger kids, or have language barriers, or simply feel intimidated. No one at the dinner needed a translator, yet probably half the school's parents do. Fascinating display of institutional racism and classism.

- Buy a sweater for every kid - that new school is cold! 85% of the kids in this urban school qualify for free lunches. There must have been some way to celebrate the new school in a manner that benefited the kids more than the administrators. If I had to hear one more of them say "It's all about the kids," I'd have barfed.

DH and I have talked about inviting the principal and his wife out to dinner. I'd like to see how he feels about it. He strikes me as a practical man, certainly a disciplined man with the will to work this system, but I bet he could think of a lot better ways to inaugurate the school than a stuffy dinner. He invited me to be a Science Inquiry Helper, which somehow involves Hissing Madagascar Cockroaches. Ugh. The things we do for our kids. I'm considering that to be separate from this Key Communicator shtick.

But there is still a dinner kicker! Having read the goal statement for the Key Communicator program, I approached the Community Relations person, to whom we report. It went something like this:

Me: "You want feedback, and I have some. In what form do you want it?"
She:"You tell me."
Me: "Do you want it now?"
She: "Oh. I guess so."

I told her that I often get these school phone messages when I am at soccer practice with other middle school parents. I tell them what the message says. ("Great! That is what we want you to do.") But they seldom believe it. The rumor mill has a different story. Everyone knows someone with a kid at the high school, who has a different story. Or, the police officer that a neighbor knows has another story. The newspaper has yet another story, in print, with quotes from police and witnesses.

She: "Well, that's what your job is, to tell them the truth."
Me: "How do we know which is the truth?"
She: "What we tell you is the truth."
Me: "Then, I guess my feedback is that no one believes that."
She: "It's your job to work harder to convince them."

OMG! I'm an unpaid PR shill for the school district!

Oh, this will be precious.

I get to go to these dinners twice a year. I should probably dress better than khakis and a hoodie next time. And bring my handy-dandy Key Communicator pen and Post-It Notes.

'Cuz I have some communicatin' to do.


[PS: As I was writing this up earlier today, I got a crying phone call from a panicked DD12, on her VERY late bus home. Apparently the kids were out of control, the police were called, the emergency door alarm was going off, they wouldn't let her off the bus, and she wanted me to rescue her from the bus immediately! I could hear screaming.

I jumped in the car and headed for the bus route, but the bus started moving again, triggering a chaotic round of cell phone calls as I chased the bus. I finally caught up at a school bus stop - several angry parents were there, having been waiting for over an hour. At least I got the phone number for the school bus dispatcher out of the driver. There is a lot more to that story, but I got her off the bus at 4:38pm - the buss was due at 3:21pm. She was crying, had a headache, needed to pee, and was starving because the school lunch was horrible. She says someone took down her name and said she was suspended, although she had nothing to do with the trouble. We will be in the principal's office when it opens on Monday, poor man. ]

[PPS: And while I was driving her home from the bus debacle, apparently someone robbed the barber shop around the corner from our house. The newsfeed says that someone else tried to draw a gun, and was shot in the head. We hope it is not the barber or a neighbor. There are lots of police searching our neighborhood for two gunmen. Rough day, today.]

CSAs in the City: Community Support Needed

Full weekly share from Seasons' Harvest Farm

Those of us that read food, garden, or homestead blogs are familiar with the acronym "CSA" for Community Supported Agriculture. But the general public, not so much. I find it encouraging that our local paper is covering changes in the food economy, with articles like this one, about a small Kutztown CSA that lets one family afford to garden for 14 other families.

A lot of local produce goes directly to the Philadelphia market. There are other CSAs used by Berks Countians, but I am specifically looking at CSAs that are easily accessible to residents of Reading, where the 85,000 people live.

City-Accessible CSAs in Berks. The only CSA plans I can find in Berks, with pick-up within 10 miles of the city of Reading, are these:

Seasons' Harvest Farm - $575 Large and $415 Medium shares for 24 weeks in 2008. The farm is in Lenhartsville, far northern Berks, but one of their CSA drop-offs is at the GoggleWorks art center, making them the only CSA with a Reading city location. I know people that are happy with this CSA.

B&H Produce - $320 for 16 weeks in 2008, pick-up at the farm in Morgantown, or in Wyomissing and Shillington. I know this owner, and you can also sample her produce at the West Reading Farmer's Market on Sundays. I know people that are happy with this CSA.

Farm To City - $550 Full Share, $400 Partial Share for 23 weeks in 2008. The Red Earth Farm is in Schuylkill County near Pottsville, but the CSA mostly delivers in Philadelphia, with stops in Kutztown and Oley. I don't know anyone using this CSA this year.

Two Gander Farm in Oley is offering their first CSA, a winter plan (the only winter CSA) with greens, honey, and cellared vegetables. $475 for 20 bi-monthly boxes of winter roots and greens, including a 14 oz jar of honey, works out to $23.75/week. They plan to offer a spring and summer CSA next year. You can find them at the West Reading Market on Sundays.

Quiet Creek Farm is worth mentioning, although pick up is in Kutztown. It is part of the famous Rodale Institute Farm, which pioneered organic farming. A full share is $650, a half-share is $465, June through November.

There were 2 other CSAs in Oley. Covered Bridge Produce failed in 2006. Old Earth Farm announced that their 2008 season cancelled, and I don't know what is happening there. These failures worry me, because they make buying into a CSA look unacceptably risky.

There may be other CSAs, but they are invisible to me. One shortcoming of CSA farmers is a failure to take advantage of the internet. Every farm needs a website with current info on it. Barter with a hungry web designer! B&H does a very good job with this - website, and a blog with each week's share described, and they are listed at LocalHarvest.org. Please be findable, if you want community support.

Obstacles to CSA Use for City Dwellers. the average city dweller has zero knowledge about the benefits of buying locally, eating seasonally, avoiding farm chemicals, or the value of investing themselves in the support of a small family farm effort through a CSA. I know my city neighbors don't understand. Most of them work hard just to get the most food for the least money. Carrots seem like carrots, whether they are industrial, organic, homegrown, canned, or frozen. They don't go to the local grower market in West Reading because it is perceived as producing "food for rich suburban people who can afford to be picky."

It's harder to get low-to-moderate-income folks on the organic/local bandwagon that we need them to be on. We need them if we want to see wider-spread changes in how food is produced, delivered, and consumed. It will not work if we only include the elite bunch that can go to a foodie fest in San Francisco. CSAs, for example, which seem like a good idea for anyone, still come with obstacles for the urban dweller of modest means. There maybe solutions, but the community structure to support them is not there yet.

Even if we agree that the 35% of Reading households living below the poverty line simply cannot afford a CSA share, we are still left with the 65% that might afford it.

There are obstacles that will require community responses. It not fair to expect the farmers to solve it all - their profit margin it too narrow. And the lower-income households would typically have trouble organizing community structures beyond the neighborhood level. So, support needs to come from middle-to-upper income organizers. I don't think we should wait for government to provide the solutions we need.

1. People with fixed or limited incomes can't assemble the large payment. Most CSAs require about $500 in advance, long before the season starts. It's a good deal in the long run - an average of less than $25/week for a lot of produce. But $500 is a whole month's food budget, and there are no extra big lumps of cash lying around.

Possible Solution: A nonprofit could engage itself in buying CSA shares that families can purchase on a weekly basis. It would be more effective if families could use food stamps. An individual CSA can also commit to providing a certain number of reduced-price shares, or accept the risk of allowing a few members to pay weekly.

2. There are almost no delivery spots in the city. That effectively excludes city families that need to shop close to home because they have no cars, or very limited gas money.

Possible Solution: An urban church or social justice group could offer their facility for weekly CSA delivery, helping the CSA farmer with distribution tasks.

3. The CSA box includes unfamiliar food. Chard, turnips, garlic scapes, etc. These are gourmet treats for people used to cooking with them, but just so much rotting trash to those that don't know what to do with the stuff. That can make the CSA look like less of a good idea.

Possible Solution: The Penn State Cooperative Extension has two staffers that work on nutrition for low-income folks, including one that is bilingual and works mostly in Reading. That program could use more funding. Someone needs to identify and teach willing city people to cook (or support community cooks that can teach). Most people don't know how plan for and use seasonal food and simple staples, to replace processed food with homemade. It would also be nice to share cooking traditions between ethnic cultures, which would teach us to use unfamiliar produce. Language bridges are needed. Another option is for CSAs to be flexible with box contents, allowing people to substitute for things they won't use.

4. It is hard to take risks with our food budgets. Buying into a CSA is a gamble. What if it failed one year? There are no refunds; you share the risk of the farmer. You would have to come up with more money to replace the CSA produce you expected.

Possible Solution: One could hedge the bet by buying into a CSA and also planting some tomatoes and peppers at home. Or splitting a CSA share with someone else, so neither family is completely depending on the CSA. Or splitting two shares at two different CSA farms.

5. CSAs aren't a good match for small households. The city is full of singles, elderly and not. Single-parent households are the norm. Eating a giant box of leafy greens might be what we wish for a mother with young children, but we can't expect to start there. We have high-rise apartment buildings full of elderly residents, and no remaining farmer's market in the city.

Possible Solution: An organization that matches up 2-3 families to split CSA shares. Perhaps the same one that helps finance shares over time. It would need to come with recipes and help figuring out how to use that produce to cook for one, or for picky children. Or maybe we need to match seniors who could contribute to a share, with families that could cook for them. This kind of matching could also happen at the neighborhood level, if someone simply steps up to organize CSA shares for their block.

6. CSAs don't take food stamps. Some market vendors take WIC and senior citizen produce vouchers, but they have to be registered with the state for that. Some vendors in the suburban farmer's markets take food stamps. But no CSA that I know of can process food stamps, and that kind of paperwork may be beyond them.

Possible Solution: A CSA could partner with another vendor that is able to process food stamp purchases. Or, we are back to that matching/financing organization for city residents. It is possible to address this at the neighborhood level, if someone uses their food stamps to buy a bulk staple like flour, and then trades it for part of a CSA share - but that is a complex transaction.

7. CSAs are invisible. One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of visible information for city residents. I had to work hard and know the key Google search words to find what I did.

Possible Solutions: Part of this is CSAs needing to figure how to be more visible. But part is a larger media and community need to look more carefully at the real food shopping choices available to city dwellers.

Most working families do not have the time or money to spend on broad comparision shopping - they go to the place they can get the majority of their needs met. The Super Wal-Mart is a frequent choice.

Corner stores, ethnic food stores, and small independent city groceries are visible within more limited neighborhoods, and may carry home-grown or local produce. I know that some stores go to the Kutztown Produce Auction to buy bulk, or make deals with individual farmers. They are not good at advertising their local produce. Overall, the lack of selection and high prices make corner stores a poor choice for a family that can go anywhere else.

Supermarkets like Giant and Weis are visible, and put flyers in the weekly papers. The Super Wal-Mart is very visible in the urban food scene. The two large suburban farmer's markets are fairly visible, but shoppers will drive right past them on the way to the Super Wal-Mart. Personally, I try to avod Wal-mart, although their organic offerings are expanding and that is generally a worthwhile trend, introducing organic options to low-budget shoppers.

Discount grocery chains like Aldi and Price-Rite make themselves very accessible to people with small budgets and limited transportation. They offer house-brand canned and frozen food, basic produce and meat, discounted brand-name snacks. Almost none of it is locally produced, but you can half your grocery bill by doing most of your shopping at a discount grocer.

I get a good portion of my staples from discount grocers, and I am a better-educated food shopper than most. Price-Rite has the lowest-priced honey in the county, and good prices on canned and dried beans, sacks of rice, tortillas, large canisters of herbs and spices. Aldi has the best prices on staples like saltines, canola oil, sugar, baking supplies, dairy products, frozen ground turkey, canned vegetables, and 100% beef burgers, inexpensive cuts of pork. I can get real cheese in blocks as low as $2.50/lb at times; markets and grocery chains never go that low.

I am a low-to-moderate income food shopper, and I can't afford the food buying choices I would like to make, even though I know what they are. I can go to discounters, liquidators, ethnic stores, U-pick orchards, and spend $20-30/week at a local produce market. I can manage some small bulk purchases to save money. But no CSA, and I can't afford to avoid cheap imported food in favor of a more local diet. When gas and food prices rise again, the options I can afford will be curtailed. That isn't just a family problem, it's a community problem, and a societal one.