Final Reflective Essay

I was not looking forward to the service learning portion of the honors program. I was a little unsure of what was expected of me, and it does not help that I am anti-social by nature and hate the thought of having to interact with people I am unfamiliar with. However, it is required of us students, and we must abide by the rules. To make myself more comfortable with the process I found something close to home, and I mean that quite literally. The temporary housing of the Neosho school’s central office is a couple of blocks away from my house. My mother is a secretary to one of the Assistant Superintendents, and she was able to talk to the superintendent to make sure it was okay that I work off my hours there. I will start by explaining the structure of the office, and I will then move on to discuss how this experience has made me look at things a little differently.
The central office at Neosho is divided up into three basic blocks: the financial office, the curriculum/instruction office, and the superintendent’s office. The financial office is made up of Staci Ashworth and Kristi Enloe; their boss is Mr. Charles Brazeale, formally titled the Assistant Superintendent of Finance. They are in charge of paying bills in general, and Mr. Brazeale decides how to arrange the budget. The curriculum/instruction office is made up of my mother, Crystal Heiskell, and her lovely co-worker Tammy, whose last name I cannot remember for the life of me. Their boss is Mrs. Alma Stipp, formally titled the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Finance. This office decides what textbooks should be available for use in the classroom, and evaluates the teachers’ teaching ability and style. The superintendent’s office is made up of Bekah Peters and Tonya Patterson. Dr. Richard Page is their boss and the Superintendent of Schools. Dr. Page is the head honcho of the district and has to make the big decisions. What exactly those decisions are, I am still left wondering about. They are all very nice people, and I was happy to work with them. A good majority was dedicated to making the school better for students. I was given the following as the mission statement of the office: “The Mission of the Neosho R-5 School District is to facilitate learning; to nurture individual potential; and to assist students to believe in themselves through successful learning experiences.” After my time of working in the office, I think they are doing well in fulfilling their mission statement. Having attended Neosho schools, I feel somewhat qualified to say this, at least on my own behalf.
While I was working at the central office, I found out that this particular office did not have very much contact with students. The focus of their work was a vague memory stored away in another building. Dr. Page makes routine visits to the high school, but he is the only one in the office with the ability to do that regularly. Although the office setting was temporary, I know from previous experience that the superintendent’s office was not a place one wanted to visit. Students really have no need to visit this area unless a severe punishment is eminent. It is hard to describe the exact feeling, but walking into the superintendent’s office can make a student feel as though there is something bad that is going to happen to them. The rule of thumb is: if there is not an extremely good reason for being there, a student should not be there. This was something I did not take into account when choosing an area for my service learning. I thought I would have a chance to see how the major decisions affected the school district as a whole. However, there is little feedback to the work done in the central office of a school. It is hard to actually see the results of a certain program used when you do not see the program being implemented. The results the central office receives are usually via statistics saying the schools have overall done so much better or so much worse in this particular area of the curriculum. The interaction of the office is therefore somewhat limited to the interaction that is produced between the members of the office. From what I saw, the office works well together. There were no arguments, fist fights, or killings to speak of, and they genuinely seem to want to make the Neosho school system better. The office is really its own society, in a manner of speaking. There is a hierarchy within the office, just as there is a hierarchy within the larger society. Therefore, there is social capital produced within the office, as well as the social capital the office as a whole produces within its community.
The central office may not have much interaction with the focus of their work, otherwise known as Neosho students, but this office still manages to play a major role in the social capital of the community. The decisions made in the superintendent’s office can affect the future and current generations of the city. If Neosho is a place where children can grow up with the promise of a better education, then parents are more likely to send their children to Neosho, moving into town if necessary. This in turn creates more revenue for local businesses and provides more diversity in the population. Neosho schools do have to maintain high standards of education to achieve this, and the central office is the controlling factor of these standards. Without an office in charge of the school district, the quality of the school would plummet. An organizing structure is absolutely necessary for a school to stay focused on improving its quality of education. Before volunteering, I thought that the central office did some work but was more of a figurehead than anything. I had no idea that they were so involved in the decisions of the schools. When I went to school, every time something changed or something new happened, I thought it was the individual school’s decision. I did not realize that anything major happening in an individual school makes its way through the superintendent’s office first. I do not know how many people in the community or in the school system at this time understand how this works.
The central office does an amazing job at facilitating learning. Despite this, I might have had more rewarding results from an organization closer to the entire focus of their mission statement; however, I was not given an explicit list of such organizations. I do not mean to insinuate that the experience I had was absolutely horrible. I was able to learn several new things about the manner in which school systems are broken up and how each section of the school district is treated. However, nothing mind-blowing was achieved from my hours of effort, if effort is truly the term to use. I was not forced to do anything unusual or completely foreign to me. It is likely that I was not given much to do at the office because they did not know that I could do very much around the office; I was not going to be there on a long term basis. From some of the other journal entries I have read, I think that others were also made to do “housework” at the agency of their choice. Cleaning up, answering the phone, and filing are considered typical activities for “volunteers.” Unless the quality of work is made a precedent before the volunteering begins, it remains likely that many organizations will give those who volunteer menial tasks to perform. Honestly, I wish that I would have tried another organization, but it would have been difficult to find something that could have worked around my schedule. Not to mention finding something that I would have been brave enough to try on my own. That was one of my biggest problems when looking for an organization to work at.
The class was generally confusing for me as to what we were supposed to focus on. I understand that society comes together in individual circumstances to make life better for everyone, but I am not sure if that was one of the main points in the class or not. Although the course’s intentions are honorable, I believe that the results of the class could be enriched with a more structured method of volunteering. If a solid questionnaire were formed dealing with the type of volunteer work to be done were accumulated, students could more easily eliminate an organization from their list of potential agencies. Personally, I had trouble keeping in mind everything that we were supposed to take away from this experience. It is hard to find all the answers I would have liked to in twenty-four hours spread across an eight week period of time. I probably could have done more to enhance my own experience, but I did not comprehend how the organization one chooses can affect the entire experience. That is, I did not understand at the beginning of the semester; now I am fully aware of the impact this factor makes.
The central office was a very interesting place to work; however, it would have been a more fulfilling experience if I had been able to work more with the superintendent. I understand that he is busy, but it still would have been nice to have been more involved. That is one area the superintendent could work on. I could be wrong, but I believe that personal skills are a very important set of skills to have when you are someone in charge of other people. Some of the most successful people are people with good personal skills. I am really not the one to be lecturing on personal skills, but I know that it is easier for me to work with someone who works well with others. This may sound rather obvious, but it is something I have found to be too true. When teachers make students get into groups to present something to the class, the groups who do the best usually have members who work well with others or have members who are very smart and do not mind doing the work of the entire group. In the end the group who does well through working together is the most typically the most satisfied group. If there was one area the superintendent could work on that would probably be the area I would recommend. Collectively, the office seems to run smoothly; there is a lot of communication. When problems come up, the office members work together to solve each problem. I do think that they could loosen up a little bit. Everyone in the office is friendly, but it can be difficult to connect with them. I am going to go out on a limb and say it is because they are busy doing their work, which is what they are supposed to be doing. I felt like I was bothering them when I did ask questions. This awkwardness was only felt in the financial section of the office. I did not know any of them very well, and this could be why I was hesitant to push my issues. The fact that my mother worked in the curriculum/instruction section of the office is also the reason I did not pause before saying something.
My service learning experience taught me a good lesson. I can achieve only what I ask of myself. If I had pushed myself and volunteered at an organization such as Crosslines, I would have had a more involved service learning experience. My own experience was not completely lacking, but there was room for improvement. I might have been able to get more out of it if I had been more aggressive in asking those I was around more questions about there work. Unfortunately, I have a weak nature that I haven’t been giving daily vitamins. In order to have gotten more out of my experience and out of life in general, I will need to push my self-inflicted boundaries.

Week Eight

This week wasn’t quite as exciting as last week. I might have mentioned that the picnic I was discussing had prizes given out. Well, those prizes have to come from somewhere, namely, the businesses of Neosho. So, I busied myself by stuffing envelopes going to the many businesses in town. Some places were in Joplin, but those attending the picnic are not snobby about where their prize comes from. Food chains were also asked to participate in the festivities by providing food, napkins, cups, or some other form of aide. I saw envelopes going to Subway and Quizno’s. I think it would be delightful if either one of those businesses participated. There were a lot of businesses asked to help, so I am assuming that they are overshooting the number they would be happy with. The more requests they hand out, the more likely they will have a decent number of businesses join in.
Later in the week, I had to go through files to determine which classes were current and which weren’t. There were some classes I’m sure haven’t been used for at least ten years or more. There were files for classes I had never heard of before. As I went through, I was looking for a paper stating the course’s focus. Many of the classes did not have one of these papers. I wrote down theses courses and my mom had to send the list to Mr. Cook, the assistant principal of the high school. He goes through the list and tells my mom which files it is alright to eliminate. I was rather surprised they hadn’t done something like this earlier.
This was my last week to volunteer, and I was interested in how the office interacts with each other. There are separate offices within the larger office, and these offices are essentially their own space. There are four offices: special services, finance, Mrs. Stipp and her assistants, and the superintendent. I am not sure if it is the layout of the building, but the only reason these offices seem to interact is to redirect an issue or chat about something insignificant. I had thought that I would be able to work more with Dr. Page during my time of volunteering, but he doesn’t seem to require that much help. I suppose he has the least amount of interaction with the rest of the office. He could be separated for several reasons, but it was still rather awkward. Anytime I had to go into his office, for whatever reason, I felt like I was interrupting him. It’s very possible that I was interrupting him, but there are ways to make people feel comfortable around you. I’m not sure if Dr. Page has managed to learn these ways.
Anyway, I had fun volunteering. I like working in an office setting. It is usually organized and easily managed. In a school office, the workers have a unique advantage; they are easily able to see the results of their work. I will be attending the end of the year picnic and will get to see some of my ideas in motion. It was a very enjoyable experience.

Week Seven

This week I worked with my mom and the other lady in her office, Tammy. They are getting ready for the next school year by comparing and looking at all of the different textbooks available. There are several companies who send textbooks to the schools on a trial basis. Mrs. Stipp is heading all of this up, and I believe she makes the ultimate decision as to whether or not they use a certain book. Companies send representatives with the book samples. I heard my mom and Mrs. Stipp discussing the quality of these representatives; apparently, many of these people are not well adept at presenting their materials. This doesn’t really surprise me because I don’t think most of these representatives have tried teaching kids using their particular textbook.
Anyway, I had to sort through the stacks of books that had come in since my mom and Tammy had somehow mixed them up and put them in the wrong boxes. It was tiresome work, especially at 7:30 in the morning, but I like sorting things. There seemed to be a lot of books for the younger grades, and several of these books were science or math related.
Later in the week, I helped my mom with planning the annual end of the school year picnic. I’ve been to the picnic before, and it usually has decent food. They typically give out prizes and have music playing, but it is kind of boring. Younger kids don’t like going to it because they don’t have much to do. I know, I was one of the younger kids once. This year, I think my mom is trying to give it a facelift. She had me look through a buy in bulk type of catalog with a bunch of party stuff. I was supposed to find items that would be good prizes for younger children. I had fun; there were sand dollars that you could buy in a basket of fifty at a time for a relatively good price. I found a lot of good stuff like that. Whether or not my mom will actually buy all of the things I picked out, I don’t know. I still had fun doing it. I also had to pick out games for kids to play. Three-legged races, fish in a pond, and a bean bag toss were a couple of the games suggested. I thought it would be nice to have hillbilly golf for the adults to play. If you don’t know what hillbilly golf is, you need to find out. It’s amazing. The picnic isn’t until May 24th, but I still plan on attending. It will be interesting to see a few of the things I picked out actually in use. I hope my ideas were helpful to my mom in planning the picnic; she told me they were. I also suggested that the workers at the picnic wear the same style of t-shirt to distinguish them from the crowd. I know that would make it easier to find someone if a question came up.

Week Six

I took spring break week off, and it was very nice to sleep in.
This past week I helped my mom and her coworker Tammie get set up for a middle school event. I had to run back and forth between the high school, where they were organizing things, and the building they are renting for office space because they had forgotten some supplies there. I hadn’t been around the high school since I graduated, and I was surprised at the changes that are happening. It especially surprised me that they were still working during the school year. The office had moved and there were signs of construction throughout. I guess they want to complete the project quickly, which is a good thing.
Before I helped my mom, though, I finished up the recruitment packets for Bekah Peters. She wanted around 100 packets. I also found out that the packets have applications in them; this is probably a good thing if they are supposed to “recruit” people. All in all it wasn’t a bad week.
I have noticed that the superintendent and his assistant are somewhat standoffish. It’s not just with me; everyone in the office is treated with the same sort of indifference. Makes me think they are either really busy, or really stuck up. Hopefully the former.
After talking to my mother about my concerns with Dr. Page and Mr. Brazeale’s behavior, I found out that they are both very busy, and Dr. Page isn’t much of a people person to begin with. I would think that a person in an authoritative position should be more open to people in general; however, I could have been in the wrong position to be judging his personality. My mom did say that he was very busy, and I am not sure if that is all his fault. Those beneath him, or Mr. Brazeale, could probably pick up the slack a little more. Those are my words, by the way. My mom made no such insinuation; I am assuming that this is one possible area of improvement.
Anyway, the high school as I said earlier is making major changes. The office was once at the north end of the building and has been moved to the center of the building in front of the auditorium. They are turning the old office space into new biology labs that will receive new equipment. There is currently an outdoor area next to the cafeteria; there are benches and tables for students to sit at. The school decided that students no longer needed an outdoor area, so they will extend the cafeteria and eliminate this area. One major improvement will be new seating in the auditorium. I know that was something my class had always complained about. The building will also be getting new windows. I think that this will do a lot for the looks of the high school. A completely new high school would have been preferable, but the school system can only do as much as the community allows it to do.

Week Five

Last week I helped Bekah Peters again. It is the time of the year in which new teachers are being sought out. This year, I think they are looking harder for elementary teachers because the new elementary school is close to being available for use. I helped her make recruitment packets for possible new employees. The packet consisted of a front and back cover, a summary of school policies, plans for the future, and one of the superintendent’s cards. There are a lot of packets to be done; I couldn’t really see Neosho gaining that many new teachers. They will have to stock an entire elementary, though, so I guess I should look at it that way. I was very surprised to get a gift certificate from Kristi. She wrote me a little note saying that she was very appreciative of all the organizing I had done. It was nice to know that I was helping the office in some way. Hopefully, I can continue to make a little difference in their office.
I asked my mom how successful the recruitment packets were and she said that there were usually only two or three teachers gained through this process. It seems like a lot of trouble for the potential yield of teachers. I could be wrong; two or three new teachers could be a desirable number of new teachers for the school district. However, if they are going to restock a new elementary school, they will need a few more teachers signed up. Besides the recruitment packets, the school advertises in the paper and has a website with job openings on it. Apparently, they usually receive applications from several teachers shopping around for a job. Collectively, they have managed to stay sufficiently staffed; that is, I haven’t heard of too many shortages.
I know that they seem to have trouble keeping new science teachers on staff. There are old fogies who have been there since my dad went to the high school, and I don’t think they will leave until they retire. However, younger science teachers come and go within a couple of years. The science department in Neosho schools could do with a facelift. That is why it is very good that there are new labs being built in the high school.
I don’t think that too many of the other departments at the high school are struggling for teachers. The rest of the departments are filled with people who have been there for several years. I am not sure how Neosho’s pay is when compared with other school districts, but they have managed to keep several of their teachers for a couple of decades. The school has been making a lot of changes within the last few years, and it will be interesting to see how many of these older teachers begin retirement.
My sister is a junior at the school right now, and she hasn’t said too much about the changes the high school is making. It could be that she is used to it and accepts the change as an everyday thing.

Week Four

This is a little late, but I thought I would go ahead and post it.
Last week I worked for Bekah Peters from the financial office. The state has a survey that is taken every year, and I think the results of the survey are used in some way to determine the funds a school is allotted. Anyway, the survey is taken in two parts: high school seniors take the first part, and the next year the school is supposed to call these students to see where they are at in their plans. Students are asked if they intend to go to college, what their major would be, and if they aren’t going to college, where they intend to work. The follow up portion of this survey is done by phone and is usually administered by the counselor’s office at the high school. However, this year the counselor’s were apparently too “busy” to administer the survey. Bekah had called most of the people already, so I had to call the people she had not gotten in touch with.
I volunteer in the morning, so I was able to catch some of the people before they went to work. Most of the people I talked to had switched the major they had first wanted to pursue. Many had also not gone to college at all. I talked to a few people who were rather grouchy, but most of them were alright. I’m sure the people were grouchy because it was so early. One lady was particularly annoyed with me; she told me she didn’t have time and had to go to work. Another house I called was Hispanic, and they hung up on me. I don’t think they understood what I was trying to ask them. Several of the numbers I called had been disconnected. I only had one person I tried to call with caller id. I had never tried to call someone with caller id before, so it was a new experience for me. The person apparently didn’t want to talk to me. My mom tried calling them as well, but they did not choose to talk to her either. They could have still been asleep.
I was supposed to tell the people I called my name, that I was with the Neosho School District, and I needed to ask them a few questions about their son or daughter. I was supposed to speak to the parent if I could not speak to the actual student. A majority of the people I spoke to were parents or grandparents. It was a little strange for me to be doing this since I was calling people I had graduated with. Honestly I’m not sure if I was supposed to be doing this, but I guess it was alright because I haven’t been arrested yet. I have to talk on the phone where I work, and I think that helped me in being more comfortable calling the people on the list. I still do not enjoy talking on the phone unless it is with someone I know.

Week Three

This past week I wasn’t able to find out too terribly much about the school budget. It was frustrating at times because the people I talked to didn’t seem to know much about how the budget is set up. The bills are paid, and that is all that seems to matter. I did find out that the budget is somewhat oriented around the reconstruction of the high school. A bond issue was recently passed, and this has allowed for the remodeling. I’ve lived in Neosho for my entire life, and I know that it took a lot of work for the bond issue to be passed. We have tried to pass bond issues before, but it was nearly impossible to accomplish. Neosho doesn’t seem to want a brand new high school; its’ citizens seem content with dressing up the old high school. Anyway, I worked a little with Mr. Brazeale, the assistant superintendent, and he was very involved in the construction project. There are a lot of things to look at when reconstructing a building, and Mr. Brazeale has to deal with many of those things. He has to compare building designs and prices, as well as organize the construction. Next week, I will try to find out if those working in the office think that the construction is a good thing.
Personally, I think that the remodeling of the high school is a good thing. Having attended the high school, I know that there is a large area for improvement. I am glad that a bond issue was finally able to pass. Like I said earlier, there had been two or three bond issues that have tried to pass through the system previously. The first bond issue included plans for an entirely new high school which would have been wonderful. It didn’t pass though, and each bond issue since then has decreased in value since then.
Anyway, when I was working with Mr. Brazeale, we did not really carry on much of a conversation. He was typing away at his computer, and I really didn’t need to talk to him unless I had a question about which pile he wanted a certain company’s bill/plan/whatever it was. There was a large stack of papers he wanted me to sort through, and I have no idea how these papers were supposed to help with the high school. I saw a subscription to a newspaper among them, and I am not sure if that was for his use or the office’s use. I didn’t want to ask him about it and have him get mad at me or something. I didn’t really like working in his office because I felt like I wasn’t doing too much of anything besides shuffling papers around. I did ask my mom what Mr. Brazeale’s job was exactly, and she said is supposed to be in charge of taking bids from different companies. Whether or not he actually does this consistently she was reluctant to say when I asked her about it.

Week Two

My second week of service learning went quickly. I talked to Kristi a little about her opinion on the school budgeting. She said that she didn’t know too much about how the money was distributed although she did know that the state has a formula they use when money is to be passed out. Funds are distributed in a variety of areas in the school district. A large portion of the bills are from food, gas, and electric companies. School supplies are also frequently purchased. Teachers often turn in reimbursement forms for a variety of materials. The funds are spread among a lot of things, but it seems to be in the interest of providing a better education. I am not absolute on this, but I think that the funding from the state is based on test scores as well as size. Next week I will try to figure out what exactly is looked at in the distribution.
I didn’t get to do too much besides filing again this week. It is surprising to see how many bills are paid in the school districts. Many of the bills are paid to repeat customers, such as Hiland Dairy, School Specialty, and Farmer’s Grocer. I know that the Hiland Dairy and Farmer’s Grocer companies provide food for the students, and the School Specialty company provides a variety of school supplies. There are a lot of bills piled up, and I am not sure how long they have been building to the stack.
There are also forms that teachers have to fill out for funding. They are called Advance Trip Expense Request forms, and they look difficult to fill out. Teachers fill these out if they want to take a group of students somewhere for some kind of school activity and they want the money before the trip. Teachers can pay for things themselves and receive reimbursement; however, they seem to prefer getting money in advance for larger expenses. There is also an Athletic Director’s form that coaches can fill out. The difference between the two forms is the reason for the trip. Sports have their own category. It seems to me that sports get a lot of attention in high school. Academic programs are forced to sit squished together at the kiddy table while sports programs each have their own buffet sized table. I find this interesting considering that the academic quality of a school is what looks good to the state, where the funding comes from, and the athleticism is really just one way to show off in front of neighboring schools. I could be biased, but I think that sports should become less of a focus point for schools. The better a school is academically the better they usually are as a whole.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see how many bills were associated with individual companies. The majority of the bills pay for food and supplies with extracurricular activities taking third place in the hierarchy of bills. The school spends a lot of money on things I had not really thought about before.

Week One

My first week of volunteering was interesting. I met Kristi Enloe, the lady who will be in charge of me during my span of volunteering. She works in the financial section of the office, and this week I helped her organize the receipts from school expenses. She is in charge of making all of the payments for the schools in the district, and there are a lot of payments to make. Trips, meals, and supplies are paid for on a regular basis for the school district. There are two other ladies in the office and all three of them are very nice. I worked mainly in this office, but there was one morning when my mother needed help setting up for a meeting. The meeting was for several of the school principals and the superintendent. The atmosphere in the office is very relaxed. One morning, though, I had a lady see me, and she was a little uncertain as to what I was doing. She went and asked my mom about me. Aside from that, things went smoothly. Next week I am going to try to ask some questions about the way the office is run and how that makes things more or less efficient.
Technically, the first week of volunteering for me was a couple of weeks. I started volunteering a little early, so that I could get in my hours. I didn’t go in during the week of the ice storm, but I found out that the central office workers still had to go into work when the schools were closed. I am not sure who decided that this office had to be open even though nearly every other business in town is closed, but whoever this person is probably wasn’t thinking too clearly when they made the decision. My mother was unaware of this policy of coming to the office when school is closed, so she was a little more than surprised when she found out. She didn’t get in trouble, though. Her boss, Mrs. Stipp, is a very nice and understanding lady. Mrs. Stipp appears to be quite involved with the people below her, which is a vital quality for someone in an authoritative position. If she did not communicate well with those below her, there could be serious tension in the workplace. Communication is important in nearly every situation you could be in, especially the workplace.
This is the first time I have put myself up for any type of “volunteer” work. It wasn’t too bad this first week, but I have to wait to see if there is much variety in the work I am instructed to do. I don’t know how much variety there can be in office work, but it would be nice to find out. I am not going to be involved with the office for very long, so I do not know how much work they will want me to do. It was slightly awkward to work in an unfamiliar place, but I suppose that is part of community service.