Comments on: Local Folks – Any Ideas?

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:42:21 +0000

Hi Everyone – Thank you so much for the suggestions. I did ask them to contact the Catholic Diocese – that’s a great idea. I’m also querying my local school district, which closed an elementary school a couple of years ago. I don’t think an industrial building or breaking the system up will work, at least not in the short term – the school has its own in-house service providers for PT/OT/Speech, etc… and it wouldn’t be possible for them to cover 10 classrooms in 10 locations. I’ve thought of our synagogue’s Hebrew school, but there are two problems – first, all the food brought in for the kids would have to be kosher, and second, the school would have to be out by 4pm, and they provide daycare for a lot of parents who can’t get any other kind of childcare for these kids. I think an industrial location might not be real safe for kids who can’t be trusted – even an office building might be tough given some of the safety issues. I’m hoping we can find things with an appropriate space for indoor play/gym/PT and classrooms – but it may come to that if what is needed finally is that they take anyting acceptable.

Sigh.

Sharon

By: Green Hill Farm

Green Hill Farm — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:14:39 +0000

Ani took my suggestion an empty store or an empty office building etc. Yesterday I went by an empty neat big ish small office or light industry building it would be the right size for small school (in Massachusetts though).

Good luck, Beth

By: Ani

Ani — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:21:27 +0000

Don’t know the area but would second(third) the motion to look at area churches that have Sunday schools or synagogues with afternoon hebrew schools- those spaces could be perfect. Also- are there any Boy’s and Girl’s clubs or YMCA facilties around? ; these often are only used after school.

Also- not as perfect but possible would be stores that have closed- I know a mall out here- the only one in fact within an hour or so- has had many of their stores close- perhaps some of the stores could be used as a temp school if you’ve had the same thing happening near you. Also library conference rooms, hospital conference rooms-can’t hold the whole school but 1 classroom each.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:08:55 +0000

I don’t know how much help I’ll be, as I don’t live anywhere near there, but I want to second the “ask the Catholic Churches/schools” idea – I grew up in Missouri, and EVERY (and I do mean EVERY) Catholic Church in the Midwest that I ever saw had not only the church building, but also a close (if not attached) secondary building which (if not currently used for that purpose) had been a school at one time, and was often sitting empty during the day, except in cases of various meetings through said church (which were sometimes moved IN the church if the building was otherwise borrowed). Every single one of these buildings also had a playground area near, as well as more than just one room (or, if there were one room, it would have more than one of those huge sliding partitions).

I don’t know about in the Northeast, but where I grew up in Missouri, they would either rent the building for cheap, or in cases of need would loan it out, no strings attached (meaning, you didn’t have to actually have anyone Catholic to use it). If the Northeast is anything like the Midwest, that (or another church with connected playground) would be the first place I’d look, as most have areas where you can be rambunctious without worrying about accidents (very important for those post-wedding inebriations *grin*).

By: Fern

Fern — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:22:01 +0000

Some of the newer local churches and synagogs might have facilities that are rentable – if they classrooms for religious classes that are used only on weekends and late afternoons/evenings. Older religious buildings are likely to have accessability problems, but newer ones might not.

Maybe some community or senior centers might have available room as well.

Sharing space is pretty common in my area, especially after building fires or floods. A church has Sunday afternoon services at my son’s synagog, his bar mitzvah class did fundraisers for a local church that was destroyed by fire, and one area community built its community centers so that they would be used as places of worship on weekend mornings.

Fern

By: j.r. guerra in s. tx.

j.r. guerra in s. tx. — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:19:27 +0000

No idea what to suggest, only want to sympathize with you. My 10 year old son is PDD (mildly autistic) and is serviced by our local public school. They have done a pretty good job (though his present teacher we feel does not challenge him to do his best), so I’d start there with the local school district special education department and ask them. Perhaps a religious private school – some of them in our area have begun to service children who are mainly mainstreamed.

I know what you mean with disruptions in their lives causing some chaos. This past Monday, Grandma went to his school to see how he was doing in class, hanging around to see how the lesson was going. When she left, my son was pretty upset – he thought Grandma showing up was a que for him to be leaving with her, poor kid. The rest of the morning, he was extremely upset – not screaming / crying, but not paying attention to his ‘shadow’ or teacher. My son and Grandma are extremely close, as you can see. So that is one of eleventy thousand things that have proven to me – disrupting their lives is not recommended.

I wish I could be of more help – our prayers for your son and his classmates to find a great solution to your predicament.

By: ctdaffodil

ctdaffodil — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:42:08 +0000

Sharon – I feel for you. Poor Eli too….My 3rd grader would absolutely collapse if there were interuptions in his services at school. I will keep you and all those kids at the school in our prayers if it would help.

By: Survivalist News » Casaubon’s Book: Local Folks - Any Ideas?

Survivalist News » Casaubon’s Book: Local Folks - Any Ideas? — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:35:51 +0000

[...] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » Local Folks – Any Ideas? Well, the good news is that the Bush regime is on its way out, and maybe later I’ll write more about that, but for now, I’m hoping to use the tremendous knowledge of my readers just one more time. [...]

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:07:38 +0000

I’m so sorry this is happening! I don’t have specific suggestions exactly, but know that there are local school buildings sitting empty due to new buildings/ Catholic school closings, etc. Example: Supposedly Doane Stuart will be moving (or has moved?) into a former elementary school in Rensselaer- it might make sense to contact them to see if either the new or old building is temporarily available. Religious schools often have empty space- might want to call all the Catholic schools around and see if any of them can accommodate you. Also, I used to teach at Maimonides- at the time it was located in Ohav Shalom (in Albany) but has since moved; a number of churches/ synagogues like that have significant classroom space that might be going unused.

By: M.Squirrel

M.Squirrel — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:05:38 +0000

Sorry about the double post….silly laptop.