copiers and keys

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Home : 2003 : August : 3

copiers and keys
By Carolyn

I teach in a small rural school. We don't have a security system, so we can stay after school, or even come in on a day that the building is locked, if we want to. Each teacher has her own key to the building and the classroom.
Our school building is unlocked by our custodians each morning about 7:15, 15 minutes before the teachers are due to arrive. I sure do like having my own key, and being able to stay as long as I want to. I once worked in a school with no key, and I had to leave just before the security system was engaged. That could be a pain if you were intent on getting something done that

took a few hours after school.

We do have one door in the school building that remains locked all of the time. Somehow I had thought that that violated fire laws, but I believe it is done to protect the children from possible intruders. The other door facing the office building remains unlocked until 4:00 p.m. Then our custodians lock it up for the night. When I leave for the day, often after 4:00, I just make sure that the door is locked behind me.

As far as copies go, I have been given a box of copy paper each semester. I don't know how many reams of paper are in each big box, but if I ran out of paper, I would have to run to Walmart and buy more. Our principal talked last year about our getting a code to make copies. I haven't seen our copier yet this year, so we may have to do it, and we may not. Personally, I think that it's just as easy to hand over a teacher a stockpile of paper and say, "That's it!"

It might seem as if the schools are taking a backwards path with respect to coding of copies, but I think that many districts are in dire conditions due to state budget problems. We had even gotten to the point last year where our principal told us "absolutely no more subs!" We just didn't have the money for it anymore. He also told us that if we missed any more days, we'd have to sub for each other.