HCCA Education & Recreation 1st Social Mixer



Sam schooling the group



The EduRec committee had its first social mixer on October 15, 2010, 7:00 PM at my house. It was a wine tasting, let’s talk about education mixer. The timing for the meeting was perfect with the election of our very own Vincent Gray, the resignation of Michelle Rhee and the national publicity of DC public schools. The purpose of the meeting was tri-fold. First, I want to get to know my neighbors. Second, I want to discuss talking over the schools in our neighborhoods. Third, I wanted to have fun drinking wine for a good cause :-)





Karen and Shawn making a point

Not including myself and my wife, we had six people join the mixer. Shawn Bucker, a neighbor I met at one of the HCCA meetings several months ago. Sam Clayborn, another neighbor I met at the HCCA meetings and at the recreation center in the weight room. Monica Bell, a neighbor that I met at events around the neighborhood that are focused on the children. Kimberly ?, a neighbor that I met for the first time at the social mixer. Karen Williams, the HCCA president. Derek Andrews, a neighbor I met that lives a block up the street from me.

Derek poppin' bottles

The beginning of the night started with people talking about all the reasons why education in DC is so horrible. Some suggested that parents were the issue, others thought it was teachers and most thought it was a combination of the two. There were a slew of other reasons that our kids were not succeeding educational but aren't worth mentioning.

After letting people discuss the reasons that public education is failing, I swiftly moved the conversation to, "We know the problems, so how do we fix it'". Below describes a few of the thoughts that were discussed.

Monica sips and listens, sips and listens

I basically boils down to resources (a.k.a. money), resources that fill in the gaps that the government can't fill. For most schools that do well, this resource generating organization is the school’s PTA. In order to fix the educational issues with our public schools, we (the community) need to work with the school’s PTA to raise money to hire teacher assistants, councilors, special education teachers, etcetera. The community can raise money by writing grants, holding fundraisers, soliciting businesses, and etcetera.

The community can also organize a small army of volunteers to come to the schools to help the school staff in various capacities. Volunteers can be mentors, tutors, read to the children, sports coaches, hall monitors or anything else the staff needs.

I'm getting tired of writing so I'll get to the result of the meetings.

1. Start of movement by getting as many people involved with revolutionizing the schools in our community (includes but not limited to parents of school age, school principal and staff, PTA, concerned citizens of the community).

2. Start small and choose one school to support (HCCA has already chosen Beers).

3. Establish concrete goals and measures for success.

4. Develop a strategic plan.

5. Implement the plan

Overall the meeting was very production and entertaining. I'm sure the 6, 7, 8, ummmm (whose counting anyways) glasses of wine didn't hurt either. Hopefully we'll see more of our neighbors at the next social.

P.S. This was a kid friendly event. The kids had a great time destroying my basement (my kids did most of the destroying).

Boyle Stuckey

HCCA Educatioon & Recreation Chairman