Citizens discuss what could make a quick impact on Guthrie schools

The Citizens for Quality Education met for the second time on Monday evening and are now hoping to address the Board of Education next week. The group wants to show school administration, teachers and support that the community is willing to help.

The second meeting drew 24 citizens in attendance, including three school board members.

The group, who is a team of parents and citizens who want to make things better and easier for Guthrie teachers, students and administration, visited each of the six building principals last week and learned what the community could do to help benefit their school right away.

It was stressed several times throughout the nearly two-hour meeting that their was not a hidden agenda toward any department or group, but simply the CQE wants to give a helping hand for the betterment of Guthrie Public Schools.

After discussing the issues and concerns, the CQE broke down three areas that they believe the community could be of assistance to the district. Academic, facilities and teacher/support staff morale were listed as the top categories to give focus and attention toward.

Items that building principals say would help boost morale would be some of the smallest things like sharpening pencils, making copies and daily errands. These simple tasks would allow teachers to spend more time with their students. Due to several factors, teachers say they are losing instructional and one-on-one time with their students.

In the facilities category, the CQE believes they could assist with playground needs and maintenance, help repair broken chairs in the high school gym, paint various parts of the buildings, scrub classroom floors to remove mold, repair desks and gather volunteers to assemble and set up a special needs playground.

With academics, administrators and teachers would like to see math and reading buddies for the children. The group discussed one of the major concerns with education is that some children do not receive support from their homes and feels community commitment would give more assistance to those students during school hours.

Testing monitors will be greatly needed in late February and again in April.

Next up, the CQE will speak at the next school board meeting on Monday, Feb. 10. Their hopes is to seek out what the administration would like to see from the CQE so they can begin to make an immediate impact on the local schools.