Brita Butler-Wall is aSeattle parent and a visiting assistant professor in the School of Education atSeattle University. She writes below of a positive school-business partnership,one that didn't involve advertising to students or other in-school marketingactivities. Butler-Wall contrasts the fundraising success of this partnershipwith the purported benefits of an exclusive pouring rights agreement withCoca-Cola Co. that the Seattle Public School District was considering at thetime. The agreement was approved by the Seattle school board -- over vociferouspublic opposition -- in October 1998.
My daughter Karisa has a mentor inthe business community. Joyce Jackson, a local CEO, volunteered her time last yearfor Garfield High School's Engineering, Manufacturing, and Technology (EMT)lab.
Joyce worked with teacher KjellRye and a group of high school students to design and fund a new EMT lab. Thestudents worked with local construction and architectural firms and designedthe lab themselves -- heating, wiring systems, and you name it. The firmsdonated their time. Joyce arranged for a handful of students to get training inmaking oral presentations and took them with her to breakfast meetings ofEmerald City Rotary to explain their project. They also learned to writefundraising letters to foundations. These students made a presentation to theSchool Board last spring which was dazzling.
I talked to Joyce last night. Thestudents have raised $320,000 for this project (more than they need) in just afew months. Fifteen-year-old Karisa wrote a letter that resulted in a grant of$100,000 from a local foundation.
Joyce has shown what a localbusinessperson can do for schools -- by working with the teacher on projects,by giving students access to the business community, by teaching studentsskills, by letting students stretch their abilities in a project that willbenefit them and their school.
Participation was voluntary. Thisis not exploitation of students, in my humble opinion. When I thought Karisawas taking too much of her time making presentations last spring, her teacherimmediately asked her to stop and found other students instead.
Joyce and the students havebrought in more money than the Coke deal will in a year, and it is targeted toclear objectives tied to student learning. Best of all, the EMT lab has noadvertising; the teacher doesn't allow it. This is foundation money, not dirtymoney.
Students got this money byreading, writing, and public speaking -- not by drinking caffeinated sugarwater.
Used by permission of the author.
You can reach BritaButler-Wall at bbwall@seattleu.edu