Special project

UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT HUMACAO ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Humacao, P.R. ______________________________________________________________________

Special Project Re-Painting of The School’s Central Office

Orlando Mercado Del Toro/Melanie Quintana Torres Johnny López/Mirevic Centeno EDPE4006-001 Prof. Maritza Reyes February 24th, 2015

Purpose The purpose of this special project is to impact the school community in a positive way and to give the school a token of our appreciation. We (practice teachers) decided to paint the school office’s building. By doing this, the change to the school’s infrastructure can be of great importance. Everyone that enters the Manuel Mediavilla Vocational High School has to register in the school office, which sadly, is painted in a horrifying yellow color and the walls are all dirty and full of scraped paint. The Manuel Mediavilla Vocational High School unfortunately is in deterioration; nobody tends to its well-being and maintenance. Its structure and its surroundings show how abandon the school really is. Its exterior can dissipate the bad status of the school but when you enter the school office you can really understand how bad and deteriorated the school really is. By painting the school offices the students will feel more at home in an inspiring environment.

The purpose of painting the school office’s building will not only help the students and how the school looks, but it will also help the personnel that works there.

By being in an ambience more inspiring they will work happily and will not feel depressed because the place looks so unpleasant.

We met with the workshop

coordinator and ask him directly what did he thought will be a good collaboration to the school and without thinking twice he agreed to our offer. The school secretary and even one of the assistant students were really happy that we were going to work with the office. Maybe by painting those offices more people will take the initiative to work with other things that needs fixing.

Justification Since the begging of this semester, we’ve been thinking about possible special projects we could do in the Vocational High School Manuel Mediavilla Negrón. In this pass week, we’ve discussed different ideas about what we were going to do. Finally we decided that we were going to re-paint the administrative office. After talking with the teacher in charge of the school (the school has no director), he suggested (and we agreed) that the administrative office needed to be re-painted. The administrative office houses the office of the school counselor, social worker, two of the special ed. teachers (they are both sign language interpreters), the administrative secretary, the workshop coordinator and lastly, the director. In the central office, some of the administrative secretary students do their practice hours there. Even though there are many personnel offices in this building, the central area is very damaged. The paint on the walls is very dirty and you can see cobwebs in every corner. The walls have no decorations. The color is very bright and the combination is not appropriate.

Since this is an administrative portion of the building, we think that it needs a more professional feeling. Parents and other professional visit this school everyday and having a more professional looking office will improve the image the school presents.

The school’s image is very downgraded. The high school doesn’t have a director. The students don’t respect the school and probably having a professional looking office will remind them that they are in a school and not a playground or a kindergarten classroom (which is what the colors remind them off). Hopefully this will improve the school and motivate the personnel to love their place of work.

Permanence

Painting the school office is a very important task that will have a lasting impression in the school. The school has very few resources, the change in color will last for years, and this project requires very little to maintain. This is the reason why my colleagues Orlando Mercado, Melanie Quintana, Johnny Lopez, and I, Mirevic Centeno, have decided to paint the office as our special project during out practice teaching in the Manuel Mediavilla Negrón Vocational High School.

For this project, as my colleagues already mentioned, we will change the colors of the office. The new colors will be welcoming and calming, in contrast to the colors that the office has in the present which are too bright and not appropriate for an office environment that is supposed to lower stress of parents and students. This will leave behind a long lasting impression, and though in time, the office will need to be repainted, schools hardly ever change the colors that are already existent. Teachers, principals, secretaries and the rest of the personnel don’t have much time to discuss colors and the redesign of the office, especially with over six hundred students to think about.

The sustainability of this project is simple. The painting will last three or four years, and the only thing needed to maintain this special project is to keep the office clean. Students are mainly taking classes or in the hallways so keeping the office clean is not a difficult task. The janitors mainly concentrate their work on keeping the office clean all the time, which aids in sustaining the cause. As it has been exposed, painting the office of the school is an important task.

Action Plan After making some arrangements and some interviews, we've been able to define and clarify what we want, what we'll do, and when we'll do it. It's important to note that whilst we, the four practice students have had our fair share of separate interviews, center visits, and others, we've advocated for each other during these activities. After the director left the school during the week of January 12th-16th, all of us quickly began to mobilize and look for the person that had the immediate administrative jurisdiction of the school. That person is Julio Diaz. He is the special helper of the regional chairperson. On January 22nd, Julio Morales, assistant of Julio Diaz, notified us to separate a date in order to discuss any ideas we might have for the special project. A meeting was held in the Special Education Center in Las Piedras on January 30th, where a different special project was proposed. Nevertheless, Mr. Diaz said that he is the go-to person if special permissions were needed in order for us to do anything else or, in this case, re-paint the office, for example, during Holy Week.

Another important thing that was mentioned during the reunion is that if we were to change our minds regarding the special project, he would still be at the best disposition to help us. When it comes to permissions, if the school is unable to provide them, we already have a fail-safe protocol. On February 6th, we practice students got together to discuss any ideas for the special project. Luckily, a teacher was named to act as temporary administrator of the school. He was asked on February 16th if anything was needed to be improved, he suggested that we could re-paint the office. Afterwards, the administrative secretary was asked to arrange a selection of colors that could go with our objective, which is to be able to make the office look and feel more professional.

We, the four practice students involved, decided on February 21st that it'll be much more effective for us to collaborate on the purchase of the paint and the materials needed instead of looking for donations. We've opted to invest on our time as much as possible considering the circumstances the school is going through. On March 11th, we'll go and scout various places that sell the materials that we need, such as buckets, paintbrushes and painting rolls, and others. On March 14th, we'll go and see the paint selections. On March 21st, we'll finish buying any material left. April 2nd and 3rd we'll initiate the special project.

Action Plan Table Activities January 22: Interview January 30: Interview February 6: Meeting February 16: Interview February 21: Meeting (Tentative) March 11: Meeting (Tentative) March 14: Meeting (Tentative) March 21: Meeting (Tentative) April 2: Meeting (Tentative) April 3: Meeting

Persons Responsible/Involved Julio Morales (Assistant) Julio Diaz (Special Helper) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Yadexie Ortiz Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students) Melanie Quintana, Orlando Mercado, Johnny López, Mirevic Centeno (Practice Students)

Results When it comes to the results of our special project, we can assume that our objective was met satisfactorily. Delineating our activities in a timetable helped us keep a

tight track on the things we had to complete. Needless to say, this timetable was a paramount element in the special project because we all have constrained schedules and this assured that we would use our activities hour to its fullest potential. Since we are 4 practice students collaborating in this special project, we all have different clinical practice hours, which only meant that any and every information referring to the special project was handled differently. Nevertheless, constant communication between the 4 of us was a present factor during the entire process.

When the time came for us to confirm the colors we've eventually had chosen, our decision was met with controversy by none other than the school's director.

He didn't seem too fond of the color choice and instead he wanted to almost identical colors. We had a problem with this because two nearly identical shades of light blue would make the office look very monochromatic. The colors we chose were gray and turquoise. Our aim was to have colors that would accentuate the fact that the administrative office should look and feel that it's exactly that, not like a park. We asked one of our cooperating teachers to talk to the director in order to dissuade him. At the end of the day, he still seemed reluctant towards the gray and turquoise. The cooperating teacher (Mrs. Ruiz), had no other option but to tell the director that the two shades of blue would make the office look monochromatic and that the gray color was already bought as a donation from her and Mrs. Ortiz, the other cooperating teacher. Thankfully, the director was persuaded. He provided us with the keys to the locks of the school in order to provide us the necessary access.

When the time came to buy the paint came, we opted to buy just two buckets of high quality paint with primer. Even though this was expensive, we concluded

that it would be cost-effective to buy that type of paint. When we began painting, we immediately realized that choosing that type of paint was the best option because we didn't have to resort to buy more paint. On the contrary, there was enough left over. Much to our amazement, we were able to paint the administrative office in a single day (with the much appreciated assistance of 4 other people that volunteered to help). We began the painting process at 8:30 AM and finished cleaning and organizing the office at 5:40 PM. immediately after we finished, we felt the satisfaction of having chosen to do this special project. The office receives dozens of people on a constant basis. Now we feel that the school has an office that means business. Many other teachers have approached us and have praised our efforts, stating that the old colors weren't appropriate for an office and they are quite pleased with the new colors.

Reaction Having the opportunity to do this project had more of an impact on our lives than we ever thought possible. By doing this project, we realize the ineffectiveness of the whole system of the custodians. The level of dirtiness in the central office was

inexcusable. The entire office seems like it had never been cleaned. By now, we’ve realized that the custodians of the school don’t do very much during their day. But the level of un-attendance the office had, was inexplicable. We had to first clean every surface of the office before starting to paint.

Now, after we cleaned the entire office, painted it and decorated as best we could, the building finally resembles what it should have looked from the beginning.

We cleaned a lot of cobwebs and spiders. Every corner seemed infested with them. The first thing we did was to remove all of the decorations the office had (honor roll students picture, founder’s picture, a drawing of the school, chairs, flags, etc.). The custodians were supposed to do that, but they are so effective that they forgot to do it before leaving on Friday. After cleaning, we painted everything with the help of some great people.

After the painting was done, we then decorated. That excited us because we felt great doing this for the school community. We were all excited to see the student’s reaction to seeing the office on the next Monday; also the personal that works there.

They had been “forced” to work in that infested and dirty place. Now, they work in a cleaned and beautifully painted office.

Recommendations In a short period of time, as Practice Teachers, we can only do so much. Of course, changing the color palette of the office made a huge difference, but there are many other improvements to be done.

I will start with the cleanliness. The Saturday we decided to paint, we were surprised to find the female bathroom trash can over piled with garbage from the day before. As my colleague Melanie swept the back part of the office, it was clear that it had not been swept for an extremely long time. The amount of garbage and dust was ridiculous. There were also tons of garbage hidden behind the furniture. The painting schedule was actually a bit affected by the amount of dust, cobwebs and spiders that needed to be cleaned before paint was applied. The main office floors were only slightly better than the other floors, and when mopped, there were no words to describe the gunky water and dirty mop that got stained beyond repair. Lastly, the faculty room is extremely unsanitary and I would not recommend any one to eat in there. Definitive maintenance and cleaning is needed, and should be required, for such an important part of the school.

The next recommendation is new floors. The floors have been stained with past paint, which does not come out because they are vinyl. No wax could ever make the floors look presentable, and there are two different patterns. New floors for the office was precisely the remark made by most of the faculty as the next step to improving the office.

Another recommendation, are the doors and window bars. These doors and window bars have survived various office paints, and the paint looks faded, dirty, and

in some areas cracked. Actually, the window bars and doors are the same color palette, which indicates that they were last painted at the same time. The doors are a contrast to the soft grey and happy turquoise colors that were chosen, and are of a serious green, that does not look too bad, but does not compliment the refreshing new paint.

My fourth recommendation is to buy a new desk for the main office. The desk is a hazard, with great amounts of rust, and may even fall apart when moved. Further, because the school has no secretary, students are the ones working in that desk. This poses a serious threat to the students, the faculty and the school.

I will end my recommendations, with stating that the main office needs a change of floor plan that gives less access to students. Sadly, the office has turned into a student lounge when the school principal is not present. Additionally, students have full access to the faculty bathroom. At times, students leave the bathrooms dirty. In the case of the female faculty bathroom, the female students take a very long time using it to put makeup on or practically showering in it during class hours. This is very problematic, as a line forms, and teachers that have to cut it close in time using the bathroom to start class are affected and cannot use the bathroom. These teachers are obligated to risk their heath by holding it in for long periods of time until they get another chance to go. A floor plan that restricts access of students to those areas would be effective and aid the office personnel in keeping students out of the office during their free time.

These recommendations are essential for a positive work environment that is not a health hazard, and should be applied. Long exposure to a great amount of dust can weaken bronchi and lungs, cause rhinitis, and other physical consequences. What

if there is a parent who goes to the office with chronic asthma? And the desk where numerous students make their practice vocational hours needs to be replaced. A student getting cut with one of those edges will have to immediately go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot. Emotionally and psychologically, it has been proven in numerous studies that a clean and aesthetic environment promotes worker’s wellbeing, teamwork and productivity. We have done a great job and a big positive change, but there is still much work to be done in the office and the school in general.

Appendix on next page‌ meeting repots are in the division names as such in the professional note book.

(Orlando Mercado )