Ribbon-cutting ceremony for new Ballou High School science labs

[Luke_Wilbur]

WHAT: Ribbon-cutting ceremony for new Ballou High School science labs and classroom

 

WHEN: Monday, June 4, 2007, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

 

WHERE: Ballou High School

3401 4th Street, SE

Washington, DC 20032

 

WHO: Mayor Adrian Fenty

Members of the Council of the District of Columbia

Members of the Board of Education

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey

 

Background:

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for three new laboratories and a new classroom will take place at Ballou High School. The three new labs, one each for biology, chemistry, and physics, began to be constructed in earnest in October, 2006 and are completely equipped and fully functional. Among the features of the labs are gas accessibility, fume hoods, a lecture area, television and computer wiring, projectors, a preparation area including a dishwasher, refrigerator, cabinets with locks and ventilation for chemicals, and storage cabinets. The furniture is made of solid oak and all top surfaces are chemical resistant. Each lab can serve some 24 students at a time and is handicap accessible. A separate new science classroom near the labs was also built with design input and actual construction and renovation work done by the Construction Services Administration, an arm of the District of Columbia Housing Authority. The new labs will actually open for use for the 2007-2008 school year. For additional information, contact Ms. Monique Peterson at the Ballou science department at (202) 645-3400 or (202) 645-4139.

[Karl Rudder]

The DC Public Schools should be employing its resources to help expand the learning experience for DC youth by providing tutorial workshops for parents here at the beginning of the school year. The myth that a child can become educated only within the hours of 9am -3pm is in need of being dismissed. A child will not learn how to walk, speak, go to the bathroom or any academic skill without continuous practice. We all know this yet too many have resigned the academic development of too many children to only what the child can possibly experience during the school day.

There only being 4 report cards for the entire school year will continue to fail to develop a strong team effort between parents and teachers. Our ability to cooperate will be determined by our ability to communicate. Allow 8 exchanges between teachers and parents will double the current effort and will double the success of an exchange between parents and teachers for the benefit of DCPS students.

Parents, especially of elementary school age children, are in need of developing positive experiences at home for their children. A positive peer influence can be achieved so easily by having parents working with each other in providing their children and their children's friends more frequent opportunity to develop their academic study skills and better develop their reading, spelling, having good handwriting and basic writing skills. How can a child learn how to compute fractions, decimals and compute basic algebra and geometry when they have yet to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers?

Does it take only an educational expert to reliably provide an exchange for a child to slowly but surely learn how to study and learn their basic academic skills?

The vast resources within the DC community are in need of being effectively coordinated and thus be able to provide far more effective tutorial assistance for DC youth. Any fraction of the many graduates and undergraduate students in any school of study at Howard University, The University of the District of Columbia and the many other local universities can join and help start an educational revolution in this country by providing a wonderful model for other cities to follow in respect to better coordinating and employing the resources of all American communities that will improve the quality of education that is being given to not just DC elementary, junior high and senior high school students but rather all American children.

 

There are many churches in every community of the District of Columbia and just a fraction of the active members of each church can in the near future much better coordinate their time and effort to work with other resources in providing very effective tutorial services for the children within the communities of their location. Can you imagine the power of just 3-5 churches openly working together for the benefit of the children in your community?

There are thousands of proud graduates of the DC Public Schools who are still here in Washington DC. Rather than only indulging into only our class reunions or being involved only in very small programs there's a need to coordinate our vast resources to help develop the studying and test taking skills of our little brothers and sisters of the DC Public Schools.

To limit the resources of a tutorial program for DC youth will limit the effectiveness of that program.

 

 

Karl Rudder

Joel Elias Spingarn 1970

American University 1975

202-249-8083