by Tesha M. Christensen
Helping the needy get nerdy.
That’s the motto of the Asian Penguin club at the Community
School of Excellence, a charter school at 170 Rose Ave. W. in St. Paul.
When school ended in June, the Asian Penguins had given away
seven computers to families that didn’t have one.
About 30% of the families that send children to school at the
Community School of Excellence don’t have a computer or internet access at
home, noted Asian Penguin faculty adviser Stuart Keroff.
He overseas the program, along with fellow teacher Jeff
Carter.
“The club was created to give kids the opportunity to do
something fun and different with computers.,” stated Keroff “Right now, Linux
is used on only 2% of desktop PCs, so none of the kids in the club had ever
used it before.”
KIDS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Students feel like they’re making a difference in their
community. “It’s real nice that I’m helping the community and the world and
changing it little by little,” one student told Carter. Another commented, “It
is fun to help people.”
Another sees it as a larger mission: “We’re trying to change
the world.”
“The kids use words like ‘fun’ and ‘awesome’ to describe what
we do,” said Keroff.
The motto he shares with the students to describe their
community service effort is a quote from Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple: “The
people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who
do.”
The first family to receive a computer had only been out of
the refugee camp in Thailand a couple of months.
Computers go to families with children at the School of
Excellence who receive free or reduced lunch. The school’s Hmong and Karenni
community liaisons help the Asian Penguins find eligible families.
STUDENTS RECYCLE COMPUTERS
The program began in the spring of 2012 with a small group of
technology-oriented students that wanted to learn more about the desktop
computers Keroff uses in his classroom.
Keroff needed some desktop PCs for paperless quizzes for
history, and was given some through a grant from Free Geek Twin Cities
(www.freegeektwincities.org). They
recycle computers and use Ubuntu Linux as the operating system.
“Once the machines were there, some of the students got very
interested in something that was different from Microsoft Windows, so I started
to teach them how to use and install the software,” said Keroff, who was
already a Linux user.
When the 2012-2013 school year began, Keroff and students
started a case study experiment to determine if Ubuntu Linux was a suitable
replacement for Microsoft Windows on student laptop computers.
“From there, we decided to go beyond just using Linux
ourselves, but using Linux and open source software to help people in our
community,” said Keroff. “We obtained computers to recycle, and then the
students installed all of the software and got the computers ready to give
away.”
He added, “We’ve been lucky in that the computers we’ve
worked with so far have all had working components, just no software.”
When the school year ended, there were about 30 members in
the Asian Penguins, spanning grades six to eight.
Teams of two to three students follow a multi-step checklist
to get a computer ready.
“We start by checking for proper operation of all parts of
the computer, we then do a thorough clean-up of the computer both inside and
out. We then install the Unbuntu operating system and selected
applications (Office Suite, Web Browser, Typing and Math tutor programs,
Karenni and Hmong to English dictionaries), test all aspects of system for
proper operation, assign a local serial number and finally set up user accounts
on the computer,” said Carter.
The last touch is when the kids put the “Asian Penguins”
sticker on the outside, certifying that the computer was prepared by the
Penguins. The whole process can 90
minutes or more and takes one to two days. Students work before, during and
after school.
During Asian Club meetings, which are student-run, members
discuss “upcoming ‘missions’ (what the kids call taking a computer to a family)
and have a debriefing about past missions,” noted Carter. They also learn something
new about the software, if time permits.
BIG PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Next year, the Asian Penguins intend to donate at least 15
computers.
They plan to partner with the Linux Professional Institute to
start offering students a Linux Essentials certification, an entry-level
professional certification.
“As demand for Linux in industry grows, it feels good to know
our students will leave 8th grade with a certificate that can open employment
doors for them,” remarked Keroff.
They will also be starting tech support clinics for community
members who are having computer problems.
REWARDING WORK
“In all of my years of teaching, this is the most rewarding
thing I have ever done,” stated Keroff.
Carter agreed. “This is one
of the more satisfying things I have participated in as a teacher. The students
are so engaged in helping their community and learning new things.”
[sidebar] Charter
school under investigation
by Tesha M. Christensen
The Community School of Excellence (CSE) in St. Paul is being
investigated by its authorizer Concordia University.
In mid-July, the Department of Education directed Concordia
to investigate allegations that the school has misused federal funds,
mishandled board elections, and improperly handled maltreatment complaints.
The complaint about how CSE uses free- and reduced-price
lunch funds, including having students punch in for meals they do not consume,
is not a new one. CSE was recently required to repay over $200,000 of misused
food and nutrition (FNS) funds for similar issues.
Numerous complainants allege a persistent pattern of poor
employment practices by the director of the school, wrote Lisa Needham of the
Department of Education in a three-page letter to Concordia. Allegations
include that the director threatens staff for disagreeing with her, reported a
teacher to the Board of Teaching after the teacher resigned her position with
CSE, and failed to provide teachers with paid time off and QComp funds that
they had already earned.
The Department of Education is also concerned that school
personnel are discouraged from reporting maltreatment and are that the
investigations are being interfered with by the director.
Mo Chang, a longtime education who served as a charter school
liaison for the St. Paul Public Schools, founded and directs the Community
School of Excellence. The K-8 Hmong Language & Culture and IB World School
is housed in the former home of St. Bernard’s Catholic school.
CSE opened in 2007 with 176 students, and since has seen its
population grow to more than 830 students, according to its website.
These complaints raise a number of serious issues that CSE
must address immediately, wrote Needham.
The Department of Education directed Concordia to provide training on proper
fiscal reporting as regards federal funds and investigate whether the school’s
staff is continuing to require students to request reimbursement for meals they
do not eat
Concordia must provide training on maltreatment reporting
duties to staff, teachers, and the administration of the school.
Concordia must also provide training on how elections are to
be conducted moving forward, as well as on the Open Meeting law.
Concordia was also directed to address the numerous
employment-related concerns raised by staff, and to undertake a general
investigation into the school’s finances to ensure that funds are not being
mis-spent.
The university was given
until Aug. 9 to address the issues.
This story was printed in the August edition of the St. Paul Monitor.
http://www.monitorsaintpaul.com/helping-the-needy-get-nerdy/
