Organization Function at O\'Connell High

ORGANIZATION FUNCTION AT O'CONNELL HIGH SCHOOL

All societies need development and certain requirements of the society have to be met from its own common resources. Though the resource is always available, it is required that some individuals come forward and arrange organization, so that the social requirement can be met.

All resources are wealth in different forms, and it is not money only that forms a resource for the society. Perhaps one of the most important resources for a community is the leaders and organizers available within the community for they can take it forward. Some of these leaders may have high potential and that has to be realized even before they started playing any roles of leadership for the society. The second most important resource of a community or society is the ability of the members forming the group to be able to work together as only with working together can a society or community move forward. Again for the movement forward, there has to be creation of items which will help the community or society to move forward. This creation will have to be done through the voluntary donation of labor by the members of the society. (Survey of Internal Community Resources: What is Available to Use?)

This is done even by the management committees who have to spend their energy, time and interest on the project or existing organization of the society. Yet all members trying to move the society forward have to be careful when they take action and all gifts have to be checked. There may be landowners on which the society can build a clinic or land or school, or a meeting place for the community, but the gift should be permanent. Finally for any project, there will always be a requirement of cash, and this has to be estimated even before starting on the project. (Survey of Internal Community Resources: What is Available to Use?) Thus one of the first steps to be taken is the proper evaluation of the capacity to develop.

One of the major institutions of a society is its schools, and it is important to organize help and support for them. There has been many instances of the schools being under attack over the last 30 years or so and the major complaints have been regarding the performance of the schools, through the standardized test scores of the schools having stagnated or even fallen further behind. Together with this it is often seen that schools are not being able to develop low performing students to a level where they can compete with highest performing students. In the meantime, there have been increased allocations for the public schools from the government and there have been efforts to see to it that they are allocated better. Yet, the resources seem never to be enough and schools definitely need more funds. (Private Giving to Public Schools and Districts in Los Angeles County: A Pilot Study)

In earlier decades the parents of the students studying in the schools were seen as the most important resource and they have always been providing a lot of support to the schools. Even today a lot of schools depend on parents, local businesses, corporation and community-based organizations for support. However, a study has shown that some 25 to 50% of the schools have found other important donors - students, philanthropic foundations, community members, professional associations and city governments. They are also able to make significant contributions. On the other side, there does not seem to be any major contribution from colleges and universities. The support for schools from the private donors even reaches the schools at the district level.

In general one can say that the resources come from larger and better organized groups like corporations and local businesses as compared to the previous experiences of receiving donations only from individuals and smaller groups. The leadership in the collection of funds is always taken by the principals who took up the responsibility of building up the relationship and continuing the same through regular, on-going communication with the groups who were viewed as being able to contribute. Apart from this, the principal was often left as the sole connection of the school with business and the sponsors from the community. Many of the schools also received great help from the Parent Teachers Associations for this purpose, and even local education foundations for getting private support. The principals are aware of this and always try to maintain good contacts for this purpose. (Private Giving to Public Schools and Districts in Los Angeles County: A Pilot Study) Thus, one of the main concentrations of managing is always to ensure the continuous flow of funds to the organization from sources other that the direct sources.

Another vary important area is in the ability of being able to keep up with technological developments, and for this are let us take the case of a small school - Lower Coverdale Elementary School. It is obvious that the school is an elementary school. The school is situated within a community of 2500 inhabitants and even the school is small with only about 100 students and four teachers. At the same time, since the school was small, the entire school finds it easier to work together on projects and even get the help of many outsiders. The aim of the school was to ensure that the students learn more about their region with the help of Internet. At the same time, the school wanted to make the greatest possible development in the area of the latest technology - Internet. The school has 20 networked computers, one digital camera and a color printer. Even otherwise, the facilities are made use of by the society as an Access center. (Case Study D -- Lower Coverdale Community)