The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Addendum-Design Interior Spaces

Interior Spaces is the last Concept paper section. 

Interior Spaces:

Rockaway College as outlined is constituted in two major units:  Rockaway College School and Rockaway College.  Rockaway College School offers two programs:  an early childhood program in the Pre-School/Kindergarten, and a primary education program in the Elementary School.  Rockaway College offers three programs:  an outdoor adventure secondary education intake for secondary education in The Venture School, a secondary education program in The Lower School and an early college in The Upper School.  Rockaway College School and Rockaway College require their own separate school spaces marking a distinction between each unit.  Nevertheless, this paper intends for both units to co-locate on the same property, whether that is within a single commercial building or on a single or multi-building campus.

The Pre-School/Kindergarten and The Primary School would be divided into three self-contained program spaces.  However, both programs will share office space and a common space appropriate for General School Community meetings and assemblies. 

The outdoor adventure intake program of The Venture School will run two “Crews” each occupying their own program “Crew Bay”.  The Lower School secondary education program establishes six Cooperative Learning Labs with Science History, Letters, Foreign Language Arts and Performance occupying single spaces and Art occupying five separate spaces for General Purpose, Sculpting, Visual Arts, Music and Multimedia.   The Upper School will share the Arts and Performance spaces with The Lower School and will occupy classrooms organized into seminar spaces.  The three Schools of Rockaway College will share office, storage and lavatory space.

The institution in its whole will share a Library and a Commons. The Commons will be used for Rockaway College General School Community and General College Community meetings until such time as a performing arts center can be constructed where these Community meetings would then take place. 

Listed below are “ball park” estimates of interior space requirements. Institutionally shared performance arts center and athletics facilities are not included in this estimate as they are spaces separate from the core mission of the school and thus represent budget categories of special attention on which to be focused after the core mission is being well served.

Rockaway College School

    Pre-School/Kindergarten and Elementary class space-three self-contained spaces @

    2,000 sq. ft per space = 6,000 sq. ft.

    Office/Conference Rooms:  6 @ 250 sq. ft.  = 1,5000 sq. ft.

    Faculty Room-1 @ 750 sq. ft. = 750 sq. ft.

    Common Space-1 @ 2,000 sq. ft. = 2,000 sq. ft. 

    Storage and General Use Lavatories = 1,000 sq. ft.

    Total:  at least approximately 11,250 sq. ft.

Rockaway College:

    Venture School:

    Venture Crew Bays-2 @ 2,000 sq. ft. =  4,000 sq. ft.

    The Lower School:

    Science Cooperative Learning Group Lab:  2,000 sq. ft.

    History Cooperative Learning Group Lab:  1,000 sq. ft.

    Letters Cooperative Learning Group Lab:  1,000 sq. ft.

    Arts Cooperative Learning Group Labs:

       General Purpose:  1,000 sq. ft.

       Sculpting:  1,000 sq. ft.

       Visual Arts:  1,000 sq. ft.

        Multimedia: 1,000 sq. ft.

        Music: 2,000 sq. ft.

    Performance Cooperative Group Lab:  2,000 sq. ft.

    Foreign Language Cooperative Group Lab:  1,000 sq. ft.

    Upper School:

    Seminar Rooms-16 @ 400 sq. ft. =  6,400 sq. ft.

    Faculty Space-1 @ 1,000 sq. ft. = 1,000 sq. ft.

     Shared:

     Commons:  3,000 sq. ft.

     Office Rooms-10 @ 250 sq. ft. = 2, 500 sq. ft.

     Storage/Lavatories:  3,000 sq. ft.                        

                                                                                  

     Total: at least approximately 33, 000 sq. ft.

Combined total of at least approximately 44,200 sq. ft.

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Addendum-Design Staffing

There are two Concept paper sections remaining, Staffing and Interior Spaces.  Staffing is the subject of this blog post and Interior Spaces will be the subject of the next. I developed a budget during 2006, revised it in 2008.  While its expense categories for the most part remain the same today as then, the assumptions of both revenues and costs are way out of date making the document less valuable for informed consideration and, as such, a burden on a reader already weighed down by a lot of dry project detail. 

Staffing:
The staffing listed below represents the least for successful student psycho-social and educational engagement and for sufficient school administration. Additional staff, instructional and institution-wide, while remaining essential must rely on funding; whenever funding allows staffing additional to the listed would be employed.  It may be necessary to rely on interested student volunteers in administrative assistant capacities to help basic staff to accomplish staff responsibilities.  But that would be up to each program and general school community to decide. While it is the intention of this concept to recruit parents with specialized knowledge advantageous to school development and functioning as “consultants” bringing expertise to Team tasks, they are not intended to be included as staff responsible for student engagement.  However, parents may be asked (maybe even required) to be chaperones for field trips and at student social events and to have a large role in funding development.

Basic Staff Positions:
Rockaway College Project Director
Head of Rockaway College School
Head of Rockaway College
Facilities Manager
Business Manager
Information Technology/Library Manager
Commons Manager
Rockaway College Instructional Staff:  Total eight
     Early Childhood- two teachers, one paraprofessional
     Primary Education-four teachers, one paraprofessional
Rockaway College Instructional Staff: Total eighteen
     Venture School-six advisors
     Lower School-six learning specialists
     Upper School-six professors

The Rockaway College Project Director facilitates school component establishment with each Development, Fundraising and Start-up Team and the Board of Trustees.  This team approach is responsible for facilities development and construction as well as budgeting and fundraising to support expansion to full operation.  The Project Director is the lead facilitator of program and professional development and leader in external relations. The Project Director’s position progressively assumes school duties additional to development responsibilities as components become operational until the College is fully built-out.  Instructional duties are one of the added responsibilities.  And it is intended that the current Project Director’s instructional duties would be exercised in the Primary Education Program. Upon the institution being fully established the position title of College Director replaces the title of Project Director. 

The Heads of School are the lead administrators of the two major units of the institution.  They facilitate and coordinate management with the professional staffs of each unit.  Administrative facilitation and coordination of the Pre-School/Kindergarten and Elementary School would rest with the Head of Rockaway College School, the position becoming available on inception of Pre-School/Kindergarten Development, Fundraising and Start-up Team. Administrative facilitation and coordination of The Venture School, The Lower School and The Upper School would rest with the Head of Rockaway College the position becoming available on inception of the Venture School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team.  Administrative facilitation and coordination of the entire institution would rest in the Head’s Council, it being initially comprised of the Project Director and Head of Rockaway College School on initiation of the Pre-School/Kindergarten Team and to expand to its intended three lead administrators on the inception of The Venture School Team.

The Pre-School/Kindergarten Team would mostly be comprised of the instructional staff of two teachers, one paraprofessional, and the Head of School.  Financial constraints require the Heads to be instructional staff, thus, the Head of the Rockaway College School is required to be included as instructional staff.  He/She would start as instructional staff in the early childhood program and can choose to either stay there or move to the primary education program once the Elementary School is developed and operational.  The Team would also include the Project Director.

Facilities Manager, Business Manager and Information Technology/Library Manager would join the Team if possible.  It will be difficult enough to recruit a Head of School and other instructional staff only on the promise of compensation borne from the success of their Team efforts, but recruitment of these three necessary institution-wide responsible members only on that promise is far less likely; yet, this paper intends to undertake such recruitment in the hopes three good people believing in the Concept will be forthcoming. 

The initial Elementary School Team would be comprised of the instructional staff of at least two teachers and one paraprofessional, the Project Director and the Head of School, an additional teacher and paraprofessional to lower the student-teacher ratio would be preferable but is contingent on available and anticipated funding.  By then there should have been generated sufficient funding to employ the Facilities Manager, Business Manager and Information Technology Manager, all of whom would assume Elementary School Team duties as well.

The enhanced Elementary School Team developing the second primary education class would keep the complement of the initial Team and add at least two teachers and one paraprofessional, an additional teacher and paraprofessional to lower the student-teacher ratio would be preferable but is contingent on available and anticipated funding. 

As argued prior, to keep the promise to the school’s parents, and to their children, to graduate the spectrum of gifted and talented with a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree the early childhood to early college programs must be fully established.  But, expansion from Rockaway College School to the full expression of Rockaway College depends on successful funding development.

But, assuming such success, The Venture School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team would be created and be comprised of the six outdoor program “advisors”, the Head of Rockaway College, the Project Director along with the institution-wide Facilities Manager, Business Manager, IT/Librarian and the added Commons Manager. 

It should be noted here that it is the intention of this paper to, as part of expansion funding, provide employment for a primary education instructional staff member replacing the Project Director allowing him to better concentrate on Rockaway College component establishment responsibilities; nonetheless, there will remain a necessity for this administrator to assume instructional duties and these responsibilities are to be exercised in the Upper School early college program.

With The Venture School operational The Lower School Team would be established and be comprised of the six Learning Specialists, the Head of Rockaway College and the Project Director, along with the institution-wide Facilities Manager, Business Manager, IT/Librarian and Commons Manager.

With The Lower School operational The Upper School Team would be established and be comprised of five Professors, the Head of Rockaway College and the Project Director, along with the institution-wide Facilities Manager, Business Manager, IT/Librarian and Commons Manager. 

All staff must feel passionately in favor of the key philosophic concepts foundational to the school.  They must personally and professionally feel at ease working with a range of neuro-diverse children with different social-emotional and cognitive needs, as well feel comfortable facilitating cooperative self-directed learning and integrative interdisciplinary curricula, and working within a democratic/consensus norm based community.  They must be dedicated to articulate conversation at all levels, to cultivating and modeling personal and professional habits of cooperation, to sharing with colleagues and students the continuation of personal intellectual growth and to nonviolent communication and conflict resolution.  And above all they must be fully capable of developing loving, caring and warm appropriate relationships with children and other adults.

Universal responsibilities of instructional staff in each unit: administrative duties attending to school operation including but not exclusive to the formulation of budget statements, program budgetary accounting and the construction and maintenance of student records; on-going education program development to achieve the school’s mission; on-going professional development to effectively facilitate cooperative self-directed learning with a bright neuro-diverse population, community initiated cooperative whole group instruction appropriate to a varying self-regulated population and democratic/consensus community governance; student mentoring; field trip leadership and supervision; and general supervision of student interactions for the health and safety of the community in a manner fully consistent with community norms.

Pre-School/Kindergarten and Elementary instructional staff qualifications will require a completed Bachelor’s Degree with a concentration in early childhood and/or in elementary age learning and/or in special education and/or with a Montessori Teaching Certification; preference will be given to those with course work in gifted/talented/twice-exceptional education.  Pre-School/Kindergarten and Elementary School instructional staff qualifications may include New York, or other, State Certification in Special Education and/or in Common Branches as well as experience in regular, special education or Montessori school settings, but such candidates must understand and accept the authentically alternative nature of Rockaway College School and pay far greater attention to the acquisition and use of new skill sets required for inclusion in this community than on the skill sets required for Certification and practiced in regular, special education or Montessori school settings. 

Elementary School and Lower School instructional staff qualifications may also include professional knowledge of and practice in Free or Democratic Schools, or other types of alternative schools, but such candidates must understand and accept the unique neurology and emotional predispositions of the school’s student population and pay greater attention to the acquisition and use of new skill sets concerning the social-emotional and cognitive needs of the student population than on the skill sets usually sufficient for practice within Free or Democratic schools or in other types of alternative settings.

Venture School staff qualifications will include demonstration of outdoor leadership training as well as personal and leadership outdoor experience.  Training can be through courses in the National Outdoor Leadership School or the Boy Scouts of America or university outdoor education programs. Leadership experience must be with children and/or young adults.  And personal experience must be current and on-going.  In addition, the successful Venture School candidate must have current First Aid/CPR certification-Wilderness First Aid would be a preferable addition to First Aid/CPR certification.  As other staff, the Venture staff must understand the authentic alternative nature of the school, of the Venture program in particular, and the neurology and the social-emotional predispositions of its student population and accept the acquisition and the use of new skill sets effectively facilitating cooperative self-directed and negotiated learning with a bright neurologically atypical population and developing a community initiated, policy democratic/consensus governed program.

Upper School instructional staff qualifications will require completed Masters Degree, Ph.D. or A.B.D. preferred, in appropriate discipline areas; but such candidates must understand and accept the authentic alternative nature of the school and the neurology and the social-emotional predispositions of its student population and above all accept and work well within the integration of disciplines. 

The Information Technology/Librarian would best demonstrate knowledge and experience in school IT infrastructure development, instillation and maintenance and in development, instillation and maintenance of electronic library systems, as well as knowledge of multi-media hard and software; and be willing and capable of assisting instructional staff professional development on the integration of e-library and multi-media services with self-directed and negotiated learning.

The Facilities Manager would best demonstrate knowledge and experience in all facets of school or commercial building and grounds construction, reconstruction, renovation and maintenance.  He/She should be familiar with the benefits and drawbacks of and procedures for service outsourcing.

The Business Manager would best demonstrate knowledge and experience of school or small-medium size commercial accounting management systems.  He/She must be familiar with contract law sufficient to assure protection against liabilities.  Preferred would be an individual who has knowledge and experience working with insurance, especially, in health and in liability, who has knowledge and experience working in employee benefit areas such as retirement and, most of all, who has knowledge and experience working in non-profit fundraising management.

The Commons Manager would best demonstrate knowledge and experience in school or corporate commissary operations including facilities development and maintenance, administration, food service, sanitation and health regulation compliance.

The Heads of Schools facilitate the community budget development process for their schools, act as the business agents for their schools being responsible along with the Business Manager for purchasing and for facilities and equipment maintenance among many other leadership duties.  They are tasked to be the designated school administrator satisfying state requirements for daily supervision for their individual schools.

Qualifications for the Heads of Rockaway College School and of Rockaway College will require at least a Masters Degree, although a Ph.D. would be preferred, in areas pertinent to the level of social-emotional and cognitive development in neurologically atypical children, such as Special Education with an emphasis on child and adolescent G/T/ 2e identification, psychology and learning.  Preferred would be individuals who have professional knowledge in Montessori theory and practice, and/or comparative and unconventional learning theory and practice.  While formal advanced education in school Administration overwhelmingly favors theory and practice in hierarchical organizations, which Rockaway College is definitely not, the individual with such grounding demonstrating a depth of professional knowledge in and a temperament for facilitation, supervision and financial acumen within a decentralized, democratic governance organization will find favor as well as those candidates who have administration experience within hierarchical education structures and who demonstrate a depth of professional knowledge in and a temperament for facilitation, supervision and financial acumen within a decentralized, democratic governance. 

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Addendum-Design Implementation

Establishment at every stage of design implementation rests on successive, and successful, Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Teams.  Each element of the institution would have its own Team.  Thus, the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and the Elementary School would have its Teams, as well The Venture, The Lower and the Upper Schools.  While each definitely has the hard jobs of developing the individual aspects of its facilities and programs and of fundraising for compensation and to finance the concepts into actual brick and mortar, job one of all Teams is the conscious formation and norming of the cooperative learning culture children, adolescents and young adults must find already established so they can as easily as possible integrate into it and cultivate the expectant cooperative behaviors the culture intends to induce.  Thus, each Team collaboratively would recruit members of a Board of Trustees willing to combine effort to financially secure the viability of the school, willing to work with the Team on the Team’s collective fundraising responsibilities and willing to work with the Team to institute and support the business operation of the school.  Each Team would as well cooperatively acquire the professional knowledge of the Democratic self-governance, the Talent Development infused Democratic Montessori and the Talent Development infused Democratic Education learning systems and of working with the spectrum of gifted and talented, especially the Twice-Exceptional, within these unique systems.  Further, each Team would partner to build the management, the learning systems and the facilities each is task to establish, to market the school recruiting families and children to the school, and to accept role obligations as the programs become operational. 

While the life of the entire project is vested in the successful funding development of all Teams, it is to the Rockaway College School Teams-the first setting up the school’s Board of Trustees and the School itself through establishing the Pre-School/Kindergarten and the second expanding the Board and establishing the Elementary School-go the greatest burden.   Obviously, concurrent compensation for great effort as Team members and as administrative and instructional staff is directly tied to strong fundraising, as well the implementation of the Rockaway College School programs themselves.  But, without the flourishing financials supporting The School operation, there can be little or no prospect of expansion funding.  So, with the financial success of both Teams and its Board of Trustees putting The School on firm fiscal footing and with an effective Board working jointly with the entire Rockaway School community on expansion funding Rockaway College development can be assured. 

And expansion to Rockaway College is essential to fulfill the promise to the spectrum of gifted and talented.  Indeed, the other than conventional nature of The School’s programs prepare The School’s students for continued progress in social-emotional and cognitive growth as from where they came, rather than preparing them to accept inclusion within conventional settings.  Thus, the sequential integration of program inspired growth pledged to parents who trust their children to growth through this type of schooling and provided to their children by this type of schooling must be continued as promised.

With Rockaway College School established and with expansion funding available, the Rockaway College Venture School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team could be organized.  Then with the financials anticipating further expansion The Lower School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team would be put together.  These Teams collaboratively duplicate at the outdoor intake and secondary education program levels the collective responsibilities of the Rockaway College School Teams.  While these Teams are naturally relieved from recruiting the initial Board of Trustees, they would have the obligations of working with the existing Board to expand its members willing to financially secure the continued viability of the school and of working with the Team on the Team’s fundraising and management responsibilities.

The full secondary-early college program fulfilling the promise of Rockaway College to graduate the spectrum of gifted and talented, especially the Twice-Exceptional, with a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree rests squarely on the effective collaborative funding development of the Board of Trustees and the Rockaway College component Teams.  When the expansion process commits to undertake Venture and Lower School development, it through necessity must commit to support expansion to the Upper School as well.

So, when The Lower School has been established, the Rockaway College Upper School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team must be organized with the same collective responsibilities for the early college program and working with the Board on its fundraising and management responsibilities as the other Teams had for their programs.

Teamwork establishes the individual elements of the institution. Each Team takes at least a developmental year, a “Stub Year”, as much to set the culture of the schools and to grow the professional skill sets as for facilities development and school supply purchases as those newly enrolled youngsters truly need to equally find an established cooperative norm based community into which to integrate for them to begin the social-emotional wellness and the cognitive adaptability processes foundational to the mission of Rockaway College as the physical environment, materials and activities ready for student cooperative self-directed and negotiated learning. 

The following is a suggested timeline and general task outline for the Team implementation of the Rockaway College concept school design. It must be recognized that this timeline represents the most optimistic funding for school start-up and expansion allowing the next program level to be in place to receive children ready to move on to that next level when children are ready to move on.  Nevertheless, the least implementation undertaken must finish the full establishment of the Rockaway College School providing the full spectrum of gifted and talented a comprehensive pre-school through primary school education without interruption.

During this first stub year, the Pre-School/Kindergarten Development, Fundraising, Start-up Team concentrates on initial Rockaway College School facility development, on developing the early childhood program and on anticipating the primary education program.  This Team has the responsibilities of: 1) facility and grounds acquisition (ideally one capable of housing all expansion), initial construction/reconstruction and renovation of grounds’ area and facility spaces for The School in general and for the early childhood program specifically, and information technology infrastructure development for The School with expansion in mind; 2) Pre-School/Kindergarten development with collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and early childhood program systems preparation, material construction of early childhood program space and Rockaway College Unified Pre-School/Kindergarten promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration.

With the start of School Year One, the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten is operational.  During School Year One, the Pre-School/Kindergarten Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team now having accepted program role responsibilities nevertheless continues collaborative work on early childhood facility and program needs, but more important continues working with the Board of Trustees on fundraising efforts anticipating expansion to the primary programs.  During this year recruitment for Elementary School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team is undertaken so it can get to work no later than the start of School Year Two.

During School Year Two, the Elementary School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team takes responsibility for continued general School grounds and facility construction/renovations, for grounds and facility development preparing the area and the spaces for the first self-contained Elementary School class, on continued information technology infrastructure build-out and with the Board on fundraising.  The development of the first class of the primary education program is in its stub year and it concentrates on collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and primary education systems preparation, on material construction of the first primary education program space and Rockaway College Elementary School promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration.  Recruitment of additional Elementary Team members is undertaken anticipating development work at the beginning of School Year Three.

With the start of School Year Three, the first primary education class is operational.  During School Year Three, the initial Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team now having accepted program role responsibilities has been supplemented by additional Team members allowing the full Elementary Team to take responsibility for grounds and facility development preparing the area and the spaces for the second self-contained primary education class, on continued information technology infrastructure build-out and on continued fundraising.  The development of the second class of the primary education program is in its stub year and it concentrates on collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and primary education systems preparation, on material construction of the second primary education program space and Rockaway College Elementary School promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration.

During School Year Four, the entire Rockaway College School is operational with the second primary education class established.  Concentration during this year is on fundraising for expansion.  While it is highly optimistic to realistically plan expansion for the next school year, for the sake of having a comprehensive expression of implementation, the timeline will continue with expansion during Year Five.  And certainly if it is feasible expansion as outlined in Year Five and beyond would be accomplished.  Besides, it is highly likely that by the start of School Year Six there will be sufficient Elementary School students ready to move on to the next level, the outdoor intake of Rockaway College’s Venture School, to have the Venture School open to receive them.

Prior to School Year Five, members for Rockaway College Venture School Team would be recruited and assembled so it could assume responsibility at the start of School Year five.  During School Year Five, The Venture School Team would take responsibility for grounds and facility development preparing the Rockaway College area and the shared spaces of Commons, College library, offices, storage and lavatories and the specific areas and spaces of the two Venture Crew Bays as well as on continued information technology infrastructure build-out now including the college library and on continued fundraising.  The development of the Venture outdoor education intake program is in its stub year and it concentrates on collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and outdoor education systems preparation, on material construction of the outdoor education program spaces and Rockaway College Venture School/Lower School promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration to fill the two Venture Crews.   The Venture Team would work with the IT/Librarian to begin to identify and collect library resources. During this year recruitment for The Lower School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team is undertaken so it can get to work no later than the start of School Year Six.

With the start of School Year Six, the Venture School and its outdoor intake program is operational.  During School Year Six, the Lower School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team takes responsibility for continued shared area/space build-out, preparing the areas and the spaces for the six Cooperative Learning Labs, with continued information technology infrastructure build-out and with continued fundraising.  The development of the Lower School is in its stub year and it concentrates on collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and secondary education systems preparation, on material construction of the outdoor education program space and Rockaway College Venture School/Lower School promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration to fill the two Venture Crews.   The Lower School Team would work with the IT/Librarian to identify and collect library resources.

With the start of School Year Seven, the Lower School and its secondary education is operational.  Concentration during this year is on fundraising for expansion to the Upper School.  Concept planning here assumes sufficient Lower School students would be ready to move to the Upper School in two years.  Thus, those having started this School Year would be ready to move up by the start of School Year Nine.  Therefore, during this year recruitment for The Upper School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team is undertaken so it can get to work no later than the start of School Year Eight.

With the start of School Year Eight, The Upper School Development, Fundraising and Start-Up Team takes responsibility for grounds and facility development completing the shared College spaces of Commons, College library, offices, storage and lavatories and the shared Upper School seminar spaces as well as completing the information technology infrastructure build-out but it continues the Colleges fundraising efforts.  The development of the Upper School early college Great Question program is in its stub year and it concentrates on collaborative staff administrative, professional knowledge and curriculum preparation, and on Rockaway College Upper School promotion, family outreach, parent education and student recruitment and registration.  The two most crucial aspects of Team effort are in Great Question integrated interdisciplinary thematic development and in collaborative work with the IT/Librarian on resource identification and acquisition.

With the start of School Year Nine, the entire Rockaway College is established as The Upper School becomes operational.

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Addendum-Administrative Governance

Democratic Education is all about individual responsibility in knowledge acquisition and collective responsibility in the operation of the learning community.  Thus, it follows that administrative governance should be a collective responsibility.  There are essentially two ways that happens: 1) administrative duties are integrated with instructional duties for the professional staff; 2) all administrative decisions are a school community responsibility to be proposed and resolved by way of school democratic meetings.  While policy governance is a program, school and institution-wide community obligation in the Rockaway College Concept, administrative governance remains the prerogative of the professional staff. 

Therefore, one would expect administrative duties to be portioned among the professional staffs of each of the two units of Rockaway College making the staffs collectively responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of each unit.  And certainly, that would be the way in the instructional programs with processing, collecting and storing of student records, although such record keeping should be centralized in a “Records Office” for easy access of post residency requests and kept by individual staff as ready access demonstration of student performance and advancement, and as certain when it comes to instructional program capital and operating budget development and priority expenditures as the folks who are directly working the leaning systems with the youngsters this institution is serving know best what’s needed to make it all work in favor of their students. However, there is a great need with the limited funding anticipated in any such school to coordinate the inflow and outgo of money which is doubtful a decentralized administrative arrangement can suitably accomplish.  Thus, purchase ordering and disbursement of funds for the instructional programs would be centralized within an institutional-wide officer know as a “Business Manager”, although common sense suggests some immediate program needs require ready cash which would be available in a program petty cash account overseen collectively by the program staff and the lead unit administrator.

There are intended to be institution-wide ancillary support services such as IT/Library, Facilities and Grounds, Commons, and even Athletics requiring budgetary processes independent from the instructional programs.  Certainly staff within each support service would collaborate in budget development and priority expenditure. And like the instructional programs, purchase ordering and funds' disbursement for the needs of these supports would be centralized within the Business Manager’s office. And petty cash accounts would be set up here as well.

Other collective business duties such as donation and fundraising collection, registration in and tuition payments to the school, scholarship award management, payroll, insurance-both individual staff and school organization-and other benefit package obligations of all staff would be centralized within the Business Manger’s office.  While it may be of benefit in the future to establish a separate Records Officer supervised by a Records Manager, this paper currently places the centralized student records in the Business Office.

Coordination of administrative activity within each College unit would be fixed in lead administrators known as “Heads of School”.  The Heads of School facilitate the business side of the enterprise along with fulfilling daily supervisory and instructional responsibilities.  They are to see to the smooth operation of the management processes rather than as a strict overseer of obligation.  Rockaway College School and Rockaway College would each have a Head of School.

There is to be an institution-wide lead administrator known as the College Director which presently is the position of Project Director.  As the components of the institution become operational the Project Director would assume College Director duties until the institution is fully built out, at which time the title of Project Director would no longer apply or exist.

Under anticipated funding constraints the Heads of School and the Project/College Director would be obliged to accept instructional responsibilities along with lead administrator duties.  Admittedly, the close nature of the relationships of student to staff necessary for these unique environments to work to favor the population of this institution would place a greater burden on the lead administrators than if they were left just to manage.  And, surely at the earliest moment when funding allows, these managers will be relieved of instructional duties so they can dedicate themselves to the business of the school.

Coordinated administration for the institution as a whole would be vested in a “Head’s Council”.  The Council, comprised of the Head of Rockaway College School, the Head of Rockaway College and the Project/College Director would collaborate to see to the full compliance with appropriate and lawful practice concerning regulation, health, safety and business, to work with each program and general school community to assure policy governance continuity over time and to assure general learning environments and individual learning structures continuously align with the mission of the institution and the neuro-diversity of the student population, to coordinate facilities management and institution-wide budget development, to oversee the disposition and reconciliation of individual school component budget statements and accounts, to be the communication conduit to the Board of Trustees from the school communities, to work with Board of Trustees to secure the funding to satisfy both the business and the educational program needs of the institution, to be responsible for external relations, and for coordinating student recruitment. 

Management of student admissions would rest in the Head of whatever School to which a youngster applies.  But, the decision to accept or reject rests with the Head’s Council.  Management of the student scholarship application process would rest in the Head of whatever School to which the youngster requesting scholarship is registering.  But, scholarship decisions would be the sole responsibility of the Head’s Council.  Management of the instructional staff application process would rest in the Head of whatever School is recruiting.  But, the decision to accept or reject applications rests with the Head’s Council.  Management of the application processes to the ancillary support services rests with the Project/College Director.  But, the decision to accept or reject applications rests with the Head’s Council.  While the Board of Trustees officially extents acceptance into the school community, the actual decision on applications would rest entirely with the Head’s Council.

Additionally, the Head’s Council has student discipline duties.  A four step process is established within each program to provide social control over errant individual behavior.  Step one is an intervention of a peer ombudsman who takes the offender and anyone so offended through an informal resolution process.  If the errand behavior continues, step two would institute formal peer mediation along with an enhanced counseling from the mentors whose students are involved.  If these fail to remedy the situation, step three would bring the problem before the Morning Meeting of the program where the offense exists.  When all else has failed, step four brings the offending youngster, or youngsters, to be counseled by Head of School wherein the problem behavior resides.  Behavioral correction is structured through peer intervention and counseling without recourse to such punitive actions as involuntary community service, suspension, or dismissal. But, unfortunately, there may be times when errant behaviors are beyond the ability of corrective structures to abate.  Such as involuntary community service may be recommended, decided upon and accepted by the offending individual or individuals during a community meeting, but severe disciplinary actions such as suspension and dismissal from school can only be recommended by a Head of School in which the offense occurred and decided upon and enforced by the Head’s Council. 

General School Communities’ or General College Community’s recommendations of modifications of administrative governance to operate the institution more efficiently, especially, at lesser expense would be generously undertaken at any time by a necessary sensitive Head’s Council.

If either unit decides in General School Meetings to include their students in otherwise proscribed administrative governance, they may do so using what may be termed “administrative internships” where individually interested students assist staff in satisfying administrative duties. 

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Design of Rockaway College-Lower and Upper Schools

The Rockaway College component enrolls adolescents and young adults twelve to nineteen years of age within three “Schools”:  The Venture School, The Lower School and The Upper School.  The Venture School holds the outdoor adventure based personal growth intake program for the secondary education of the Lower School providing incoming youngsters individual and collaborative engagement with the natural world as a tool to adapt to the cooperative self-directed school culture upon which the secondary education program rests.  

The Lower School holds the secondary education program enrolling a maximum of one-hundred fifty students.   It would be structured within six cooperative learning labs where adolescents work collaboratively to sharpen individual learning skills, to enhance mindfulness of social-emotional aspects of personality and to competently manage behavioral outcomes while exercising their distinctive ways of acquiring and reporting knowledge and administering through a democratic/consensus process the policy governance of the program and The School.

The Upper School offers an early college program for at least one-hundred fifty young scholars in semester length Socratic seminar courses.  Learning in The Upper School features a peer environment mutually supportive of the life of the mind and of intellectual inquiry free from anti-intellectual peer pressures and an enhancement of intellectual curiosity and cultivation of scholarly passion through focused cooperative academic engagement with the received knowledge coming from written tradition, both Western and Eastern.  Upper School scholars, as well, manage policy of the program and The School through a democratic/consensus process.  Upon graduation from the Upper School young scholars would receive both a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree.

(This paper proposes capping enrollment in the programs to the numbers so stated, or just slightly higher, with the exception of the early college.  If demand and funding allow, the early college program should expand as far as it can reasonably go while keeping with the small school’s mission of Rockaway College.  Further, while it is not the intention of this paper to propose a Liberal Arts Bacheloriate Degree program extending the early college to include Bacheloriate completion, if demand, funding and experience warrant, such an extension should be instituted with enrollment expanding, as well, as far as it can reasonably go while keeping with the small school’s mission of Rockaway College.)

The secondary education program of The Lower School would actualize student intellectual curiosity and refinement of learning to learn skills.  The curriculum for the program would be called “Free Academic”.  It is Academic in that the universe of knowledge open to engagement would be that of the learned world. It is Free in that the intellectual curiosity and the natural differences of each youngster would drive engagement with the learned world rather than that of uniform mandated core and elective curricula; in its own way the Lower School program’s course of content study would be as individualized and emergent as that of the Primary School’s content acquisition. 

Inquiry Project Based Learning and Performance Assessment would be the learning/reporting and evaluation structures utilized by students to process through the Lower School to translation of matriculation to the Upper School. Every student would engage the learned world through an inquiry project determined by his own neurological construction, abilities, interests, temperament and communication style.  Inquiry projects would be developed, implemented and evaluated through participation in cooperative learning groups where group members act together to achieve individual project objectives rather than through self-reliant, independent studies.  There are proposed to be six Cooperative Learning Groups inhabiting their own lab spaces and facilitated each by a Learning Specialist:  Science, History, Letters, Arts, Performance and Foreign Language Arts. 

The ideas, the notions, the concepts, of the learned world into which Lower School students would choose to inquire, are called “Themes”.  “Oceans”, “Mountains”, “Deserts”, “Cities”, “Luminescence”, “Alienation”, “Creation Myths”, “Spider Webs”, “Wild Fires”, are examples of themes.  Students would select one theme at any one time on which to concentrate an inquiry project.  They would initiate theme selection for all projects rather than rely on mentor or learning specialist directed theme selection.  Lists of themes made available by Learning specialists would provide students with themes for selection; however, students would be free to create their own if they so choose.

After a student selects a theme, he would need to propose to her mentor an inquiry project exploring the theme. The project proposal in this program would be called the Inquiry Project Plan, or “The Plan”.  The Plan would outline each project by stating its Theme, Scope, Objective, Methods, Final Product and Criteria for Success.  The completed Plan can be aural in the form of an audio tape or a CD or a spoken presentation, or visual in the form of a story board, or written in the form of a series of brief statements or several short paragraphs. 

The Final Product of a student’s project would be left to each student.  He could choose to present an academic paper or a science experiment, or create a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, a video, an audio recording, or stage a one act play, an epic poem, a poetry reading, a musical performance, or write a poem, a piece of music, an essay or a short story, and so on.

Plan development would be undertaken with the cooperative assistance of fellow Lower School students in which ever Cooperative Learning Group, or Groups, a student finds of interest. When The Plan is completed and registered with his mentor, a student rejoins the Cooperative Learning Group appropriate to project content, methods and final product.  The Learning Group works cooperatively to achieve Plan goals.  Portfolios of projects would be kept by each student and by her mentor attesting to the type and the quality of work accomplished.

The following examples demonstrate the manner by which students, themes, Plans, mentors and Cooperative Learning Groups combine.  A new student to the secondary education program finally rests on Luminescence as her theme of interest after observing and working with fellow students in Science, Arts and History Cooperative Learning Groups.  Together with her mentor and with fellow students in the Science Learning Group she develops her Plan.  She aurally submits her completed Plan as a spoken presentation given to her mentor.  She reports the project Scope as marine life and Objective as the identification of three species of marine bioluminescent animals and a description of their habitats.  She also reports the Steps and the Skills required for her to achieve the project Objectives.  Her project Final Product, she says, would be a computer multi-media presentation.  She sets out the Criteria for Success for the project.  As the content and the skills involve scientific knowledge, the student rejoins the Science Learning Group to actualize her project.  Another student mid-way through his residency in the secondary education program also selects Luminescence as his theme as he has been exploring this theme for a while.  He presents his mentor with a completed Plan in the form of several paragraphs after working in the Arts Learning Group. He states the project Scope as still-life photography and the Objective as the exploration of the affects of different light source positions on still-life photographic composition.  His Plan states the Steps and the Skills required for him to achieve the project objective. He states the project’s Final Product as a portfolio series of light studies of three different still-life subjects.  He sets out the Criteria for Success for the project.  As the content and the skills involve art knowledge, this student rejoins the Art Learning Group to actualize his project. 

Each and every Plan would have Criteria for Project Success based on performance assessment methods. Performance assessment rubrics would consist of qualitative propositions describing standards against which student work could be judged; scoring is intended not to be part of any rubric.  All rubrics are meant to give students a self-assessment method of judging the quality of their effort as they work toward fulfilling their criteria for success.  However, a student may request the group within which he/she is working to formally evaluate a project.  But, beyond that, there is intended to be no formal assessment of student work unless either the community as a whole sanctions it or, as indicated, an individual student requests it.

Occasionally there may be a need felt by students or observed by the learning specialist for direct instruction of project skills or of assessment methods or of common subject content.  In this case a student, a group of students or the learning specialist would call a learning group seminar to fill the need.  All learning group seminars would be conducted using Cooperative Learning methods.

Students when not acquiring additional project skills or common subject content or evaluating project efforts or working with mentors would work on their projects independently or cooperatively depending on the youngsters’ inclinations and the kinds of tasks to be done. However, an expectant behavior of the cooperative norm is that each youngster is to look for opportunities to help fellow students as well as to be open to help when needed. 

The Lower School, like The Venture School, would combine its staff and students into a formal general school community governance structure while each Cooperative Learning Group would combine its learning specialist with whoever selects to be associated with the individual Cooperative Learning Group to form an informal Group governance.

The General Lower School Community would meet once weekly to propose and resolve Lower School-wide issues including certain budgeting issues and learning material needs.  School-wide policy on projects, respecting types, numbers for each student during the school year, rating or ranking systems and on individual progress benchmarks would be a General Lower School Community governance issue needing to be resolved by the inaugural community, reviewed, maintained and, if necessary revised by the Rockaway College General Schools Community as it establishes itself with the institution of The Lower School.  The criteria for translation of matriculation into the Upper School and what would constitute successful demonstration of the criteria would also be a Lower School community governance issue on inception of the Lower School but would have to be then maintained and/or modified by the Rockaway College General Schools Community once it is constituted and by the General College Community when expansion of the Upper School program is being established. 

While the General College Community would meet twice every month, the General Lower School Community would meet weekly.  But, each Cooperative Learning Group would have their Morning Meetings each morning to organize their school day and to settle any governance issue pertinent to their immediate Group. Cooperative Learning Group community issues would include such as performance assessment components and any other issue specific to the benefit of the individual Learning Group and its students. 

Students would pass through and out of the Lower School to the Upper School at their own pace and in their own time.

The constitution of the early college program of the Upper School would center itself within a traditional college structure of simultaneous and consecutive course study where the configuration of course sessions in clock hours and in weekly occurrence would be open to Upper School community decision.   This would be resolved by the inaugural community and would be maintained, reviewed or revised by subsequent Upper School communities. 

The Upper School would also use a thematic, inquiry curriculum.  It is called The Great Question Curriculum, an integrated interdisciplinary contemporary Great Books curriculum using the Great Books as sources from which Great Questions would be derived and the resources from which students would turn to answer these questions.  Thus, each semester small groups of interested young scholars would enroll in courses exploring a specific Great Question.  Through the shared inquiry of Socratic seminars-and all courses would be Socratically structured-these young adults would collaboratively explore Great Questions.  These inquiries can be facilitated by faculty or by the students themselves.   The course of study in the Upper School would be wholly the choice of individual students.  But, if students choose to continue with formal study and to transfer to a Bacheloriate program after graduating from the early college, the Upper School curriculum can be structured to satisfy general university core requirements. 

Upper School faculty representing Science, History, Arts, Letters, Communication and Foreign Language Arts would integrate their disciplines and would through consensus with the initial and subsequent groups of Upper School students develop the generations of interdisciplinary Great Questions.  Integrated interdisciplinary shared inquiry Socratic seminar development would remain an Upper School governance issue for the existence of the College. 

An example of a Great Question might be:  “How did the eighteenth century European belief against Superstition and Fanaticism affect the construction of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment?”  This Great Question would describe and analyze the development, meaning and effects of the European Enlightenment belief in Rational Religion and in the dangers of Superstition and Fanaticism on the framing of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

Other Great Questions might be:

-Does Dark Matter Matter?

-Can Your Render Unto Caesar When Caesar is Wrong?

-How Is The Child Mother To The Woman?

-Is Reality Really Real?

-Can Spacetime Truly Bend?

-Who Owns?:  The Moral Effects of Private Property

-Beyond legal and political equality in a just society there is the personal exercise of virtue.  What constitutes virtue and how does one live a virtuous life within a “fallen” society?

The Upper School program would form its General Upper School Community for policy governance organizing itself to settle all policy governance issues using The Upper School Meeting held weekly; there would be no Morning Meetings. Policy on criteria and demonstration of criteria for successful seminar completion and on seminar class attendance would be decided by the inaugural community, maintained, reviewed and if necessary revised by subsequent Upper School communities as well as policy concerning the establishment of assessments, grading and ranking schemes. The Upper School community would consider certain budgeting issues as well.  But, the gravest decisions to be made by the Upper School community aside from course curriculum, Great Question decisions, is on the criteria for graduation and the granting of diplomas and degrees and what would constitute successful demonstration of the criteria. 

While it is the intent of this paper to grant a measure of autonomy to the Upper School by relieving it of most of its Rockaway College General Schools Community obligations, it intends to insist on it being a full participant in the institution-wide General College Community.  Additionally, under Upper School expansion there might be a need to alter community governance, but if community governance is changed, it must remain in keeping with decentralized, fully participatory Democratic Education principles and practices.

On mentoring: It is nearly a given that Venture and Lower School students need the supportive service of deep mentoring relationships with those thoroughly versed in the cooperative self-directed academics of the school and in the unique social-emotional and cognitive styles of the school’s population to assist them in maneuvering through the channels of the academy and to help them help themselves to work through their natural inclinations and individual differences to achieve schooling success.  But, the intended population of the Rockaway College component as much requires such support as they move through the Upper School as well.  Therefore, each student in the Lower and the Upper Schools, as well as in the Venture School, would be required to be mentored for as long as he or she is in residency. The Venture Crew Advisors would be tasked to mentor Venture School students for the time the youngsters are in the Venture School.  The Lower School Learning Specialists would be tasked to mentor Lower School students for the time these adolescents are in The Lower School.  The Upper School faculty would be tasked to mentor to the Upper School scholars for the time these young adults are in The Upper School.   

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Design of Rockaway College-The Venture School

Rockaway College is divided into two major units, Rockaway College School and Rockaway College.  The Rockaway College unit would house three “Schools”:  The Venture School, The Lower School and The Upper School.  The Venture School holds the outdoor adventure based personal growth intake program for the secondary education of the Lower School and would consist of two “Venture Crews” each within their own self-contained “Crew Bay” and each of about twenty-five adolescents. 

All youngsters entering secondary education whether coming from Rockaway College School or from other elementary schools or having yet completed a secondary education program, regardless of age, are required to enter the College’s secondary education through The Venture School.  The Venture School would utilize an outdoor adventure program to strengthen emotional healing and wellness in those coming from Rockaway College School and to undertake the emotional healing and wellness necessary for those newly enrolled in the College unit.  The outdoor adventure program is also tasked to cultivate in each youngster the cooperative self-directed habits upon which the Lower School’s education rests. 

Indeed, the learning culture of the College’s secondary education centers on the synthesis in each student of habits of cooperation and of self-direction where adolescents are enabled to help each other to uncover and to explore native intelligences, to enhance skills, to achieve individual learning objectives and to grow in social-emotional aspects of personality while exercising natural inclinations and individual differences to self-select what is learned, when learning happens and how what is chosen is learned.

Beginning the unique cooperative self-directed manner through which secondary education is undertaken immediately upon entrance with the number of youngsters completely unfamiliar with this way of being, of working, as would be the majority of yearly incoming population, would set all students, and thereby, the school itself, for failure.  Youngsters new to the cooperative self-directed secondary learning culture would continue to operate the way they did in their old schools even with modeling from entering Rockaway College School children.  Engaged in a system as foreign as The Lower School’s and operating through prior patterns, they would sabotage their own and other’s personal and educational outcomes.  More, new students from neurologically alien school worlds would be entering with feelings of failure and low self-esteem. 

Indeed, youngsters new to the College’s secondary education need time to unlearn old behaviors created in response to their prior environments, to learn new ones in response to the need to live within their new environment and to recover emotional balance from the trauma compliance with their former neurologically alien school developed.   And youngsters coming from Rockaway College School would need time to integrate themselves with their new schoolmates in a new learning environment.  A transitional time, a transition program, is required.  The Venture School and its outdoor adventure program provide all students entering The Lower School a way through which to adapt to their new school environment. 

An additional benefit of the Venture program would be to give the twelve to fourteen year olds time to socially-emotionally mature so they can be ready to fulfill secondary academic responsibilities.  Furthermore, the program would give adventure staff an opportunity to understand the unique social-emotional and learning characteristics of each student and to undertake through an individual staff-student mentoring-required of all staff and venture students-any compensatory work necessary for them to be prepared to accept secondary academic study.

The Venture School creates play in the outdoors, camping, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, rafting, skiing, biking, etc.  Through these play opportunities the outdoor adventure program would concentrate on team, trust and cooperative community building and move youngsters along in three developmental phases.  

As Venture Crew, the first phase, youngsters would have self-selected opportunities to directly engage the natural world, to learn and apply outdoor skills, to enhance physical strength, endurance and dexterity, to acquire knowledge about nutrition, meal planning and preparation, and outdoor personal health and safety, and to explore multiple aspects of Botany, Geology, Forestry, Zoology and Environmental Science.  The Crew Bays would be constructed as prepared environments where learning stations await self-directed engagement with the materials and activities put in the way of the Crew.  Cooperative Leaning structured activities-which can be initiated by either a staff or a Crew member-would be offered for those who feel inclined to acquire outdoor knowledge that way.

As Venture Leaders, the second phase, youngsters would undertake leadership roles in the running of the cooperative program as the Venture program is community run.  The third, and final, phase would introduce students to the cooperative self-directed inquiry project based academic structure of the Lower School and to the Learning Specialists with whom they would be working during their residency in the Lower School.  During this phase each student would select a Learning Specialist mentor-all Learning Specialists would be thoroughly versed in the cooperative self-directed academics of the school and in the unique social-emotional and cognitive styles of the school’s population enabling them to assist students in maneuvering through the channels of the academy.  Also the third phase student would begin working with a mentor and other secondary education students to develop the focus of first learning experiences in The Lower School.  Each Venture Crew member would proceed through each phase and out of the program at his own pace and in her own time. 

Each of the two major units of this institution would form its own general community for the purpose of making policy for the unit as a whole.  Thus, as was detailed prior, Rockaway College School would combine its adult staff and its students in a single General School Community to propose and to decide on policies governing the Rockaway College School.  Likewise, the Rockaway College component would combine its staff and students in a single General Schools Community to propose and to decide on policies governing the Rockaway College unit.  Organization of the Rockaway College General Schools Community governance emerges as the Lower School is established, as this represents the bulk, two-thirds, of the general community of the Rockaway College element.  Also at that time an institution-wide General College Community policy governance structure would be established to propose and decide on policy affecting the global institution of Rockaway College School and Rockaway College as the inception of the Lower School represents most of the constructed institution and, thus, the institution would be in need of a unifying community governance structure.

At each School, The Venture, The Lower and The Upper, a general school community policy governance structure would be established.  Thus, the outdoor program staff and the adventure Crew students would combine to form the General Venture School Community.

Policy such as criteria for entering the third phase and passing out of the Venture School into the Lower School would be a General Venture School Community governance issue decided upon inception of the Venture School, but would have to be then maintained and/or modified by the Rockaway College General Schools Community. 

Venture program-wide community prerogatives to be decided by the General Venture School Community would include identifying and selecting types of outdoor and indoor activities, planning, preparing and scheduling activities, resolving certain budgetary and equipment selection issues.   Issues critical to health and to safety, especially as they pertain to outdoor activities, would be the responsibility of program staff and would be closed to community decision making.  However, such issues would be properly overseen by both the Rockaway College General Schools Community and the General College Community.

The Venture program Crews would have their daily Morning Meetings to organize their school day and to settle any immediate governance issue pertinent to their Crews.  And the General Venture School Community would have a weekly meeting to propose and to resolve program-wide issues.

The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Design of Rockaway College School

Rockaway College intends to construct small school environments providing humane ecologies greatly enhancing teacher-student and student-student interactions.  They would also provide beneficial surroundings for successful learner-responsibility-centered approaches to knowledge seeking, acquisition and use, for cooperation of students in helping each other achieve individual personal and learning objectives and for decentralized school community self-governance.  Additionally, the intimate nature of Rockaway College School and the lower elements of Rockaway College would permit highly focused attention on individual student social-emotional, learning and communication needs.

Rockaway College School holds the Early Childhood Program in a unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and the Primary Education Program in the Elementary School.  The Pre-School/Kindergarten early childhood program would consist of one whole group of about twenty-five children ages 3-5.  The Elementary School Primary Education Program would be offered in two separate self-contained class areas each of about twenty-five students ages 5-11. 

Rockaway College School children would engage in whatever free, self-organized, unstructured imaginative play the environment supports for as long as they wish.  As Neill points out, “Childhood is not adulthood; childhood is playhood and no child ever gets enough play.”  (A.S. Neill, Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood.  Edited by Albert Lamb.  New York:  St. Martin’s Press.  1992. P. 32.)  While that stands well for all children, play is of greater importance to the bright neuro-diverse population of this school as play develops self-regulation which is of greater concern with this population than with most others.  As Berk, Mann, and Oga conclude: “Imaginative play provides a firm foundation for all aspects of psychological development.  Rich opportunities for make-believe, sensitively nurtured by parents, caregivers, and teachers, are among the best ways to ensure that young children acquire the self-regulatory skills essential for succeeding in school, academically and socially.” (Laura E. Berk, Trisha D. Mann, and Amy T. Ogan, ”Make-Believe Play: Wellspring for Development of Self-Regulation”, Illinois State University, http://udel.edu/~roberta/play/BerkMannOgan.pdf.)

Additionally for this population play allows the necessary sensitive observant teacher tasked to mentor these children to recognize the particular needs of individual youngsters so the teacher/mentor can effectively work with each youngster to help the child help him and herself to become mindful of how he and she engages the world and to be empowered to work through those characteristics to have the best opportunity for schooling success.  Indeed, to borrow from Perry and Landreth:  “It is generally recognized and accepted by authorities in the field of child therapy that children’s play can be a window to understanding children’s experiential and psychological world.  Children express their world through play in…open…and profound ways, and the [necessary sensitive observant teacher can be] called on to translate those play behaviors in ways that help not only him- or herself but also others to understand the psychological needs of the child.” (Lessie H. Perry and Garry L. Landreth, “Diagnostic Assessment of Children’s Play Behavior”, in Innovations in Play Therapy:  Issues, Process, and Special Populations, 

Garry L. Landreth, Ed., New York:  Brunner-Routledge, 2001, p. 155.  Accessed through http://books.google.com/books?id=CAAu6e3MvzQC&pg=PR6&lpg=PR6&dq=play+therapy+as+a+diagnostic+tool&source=bl&ots=kri9jwVQze&sig=sEQgT5HU19aAoGeoJTiG_mAF82E&hl=en&sa=X&ei=l_tQT_72NsqI0QGGooXRDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CIsBEOgBMAU#v=onepage&q=play%20therapy%20as%20a%20diagnostic%20tool&f=false

The early childhood environment, then, would be a play world centered on psychological and physiological development, self-regulation keyed on social-emotional aspects of personality and appropriate growth in gross and fine motor movement and in overall body capacities.  The unified Pre-School/Kindergarten would be filled with Montessori practical life materials and activities, sensorial materials, manipulative toys and games, wooden blocks and puzzles, sensorial keys and experiences of nature, of people, of art, of music, of language, of math and measurement, it would also be filled with age appropriate non-Montessori toys, like dolls, cars, trucks, planes, rail roads, as well as items such as sand and water tables.  There would be provided areas intended to stimulate and accommodate imaginative play as well as individual and group physical play.  Play with the materials and the activities of the prepared environment would be totally up to each child. 

The primary program would provide for play as well, but its intent on developing learning skills necessitates environment preparation supporting such development.  Thus, the Elementary School would be filled with materials like Lincoln Logs and blocks, toys and puzzles, costumes and theatrical makeup, paints and crayons, newsprint and paper, etc. There would be performance spaces. There would also be indoor and outdoor playground equipment.  But there would also be Montessori readers, charts, timelines, lab manuals, models and arts materials.  Further, there would be set the academic learning of Montessori materials organized in Learning Stations centered on Literacy, Language and Measurement and in discipline areas of Earth, Space and Life Sciences, History and Geography.  And then, as Neill says, “…when a child has played enough he will start to work…”. (Neill, 1992. P. 32.)

Subject content learning of the Elementary School would be individualized and emergent rather than being uniform and mandated:  the course of content acquisition over an entire residency would emerge unique to every child as they engage the Democratic Montessori prepared environment through their distinctive neurology, interests, abilities and communication styles.

However, a goal of the primary program common to all children would be the development in each child of competency in receiving, processing and communicating written, oral and graphic information, including mathematical information, through as many neurologically compatible channels as each child is capable, allowing each to comfortably accept secondary academic study.  These competencies would emerge through the negotiated curriculum process of student-mentor and would be based on student need to gain additional tools to explore more of the prepared environment than through mandated mastery on or before a time or an age certain.

Classes in the usual sense of mandatory, teacher-directed, whole group learning are not intended to be part of the education program of either the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten or the Elementary School.  In-school learning during the school day in the Early Childhood Program would be through self-organized individual and group play with elements of a prepared environment.  In-class learning during the school day of the Primary Education Program would be engaged through the student choice of one or more of three ways:  through self-directed independent or self-organized small group engagement with the materials and activities of the prepared environment, through small whole group teacher initiated and student voluntarily accepted cooperative topic study and/or through self-initiated one-to-one instruction.  Additionally, students would have the opportunity if they so choose to work with teachers on activities of teacher interest as helpers not as students. Outside-school learning during the school day of both programs would be engaged through the student choice varied field trips.  

In both programs the role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, growth and maturation, rather than directing it.  And in keeping with Montessori’s Method, it is incumbent on teachers to closely observe each child to determine his and her needs and to change the environment putting in the way of the child elements able to meet the observed needs.  Additionally, teachers in both programs would be obliged to undertake small projects of personal interest inviting curious youngsters to help out as assistants, not as “students”. 

The student population of Rockaway College presents social, emotional and cognitive challenges to the self-directed learning at the heart of Rockaway College School.  In both the Early Childhood and Primary Education Programs youngsters would work closely with teacher-mentors to develop and maintain social-emotional and cognitive awareness and to work on compensatory strategies to achieve developmental goals.  If there is a need, The School would have access to a suitable child psychologist, or a list of mental health professionals, to which The School can refer individual youngsters.

Evaluation of student growth in both programs would rely on informal teacher assessments rather than planned announced, or surprise, assignments and testing.  Teachers would be continuously observing progress in social, emotional and cognitive realms and would be obliged to construct written observational reports for each student, as well as keeping activity logs and portfolios.

Children have the capacity to fully participate in the governance of their schools and, thus, it is the intention of this paper to propose an integration of staff and students into communities responsible for policy governance at the program, the school and the institution level.  However, all administrative governance remains the prerogative of the professional staff.

Each major unit of this institution would form its own general community for the purpose of making policy for the unit as a whole.  Thus, Rockaway College School would combine its adult staff and its students in a single General School Community to propose and to decide on policies governing the Rockaway College School. 

As each program in The School is established, a policy governance structure will also be established for each program.  Because the developmental age of the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten precludes Democratic/consensus policy making participation by the children, the staff will be the principal policy makers for the program.  However, a staff/student program policy making structure, the General School Community will be established as the Elementary School becomes operational. 

Policy such as individual benchmarks of social, emotional and cognitive growth youngsters would need to exhibit as they progress through The School programs as well as graduation requirements students would need to meet to pass out of the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and into the Elementary School and out of the Elementary and on to The Venture School of Rockaway College would be General School Community decisions.  In the unified Pre-School/Kindergarten, as the developmental age of these children has yet to have developed an inner, conscious, deliberative voice, school community decisions would be undertaken by the early childhood staff at inception of the program, then maintained and/or modified by the General School Community when expansion to the primary program is established.  In the Elementary School, policy on what constitute individual progress benchmarks and graduation requirements would be a General School Community governance issue on inception of the Primary program, and then maintained and/or modified by the General School Community as experience warrants.  Each student would satisfy benchmark and graduation requirements and pass out of the programs at her own pace and in her own time. 

Similarly, expectant behaviors consistent and inconsistent with the norms of the School’s environments as well as the means by which inconsistent behaviors are resolved would be full General School Community obligations and would be a high priority for the initial communities to constitute with any modification coming from subsequent communities.  Daily issues of policy governance are the responsibility of the program community where the policy is enacted and is to be resolved by that community.

The community meeting is the structure meant to provide governance. The unified Pre-School/Kindergarten and each Elementary School class would have Morning Meetings to organize each school day by circulating important information, eliciting from students and staff activities the class ought to know about so those interested in participating would know and could decide which are of interest, and to settle all class governance issues through dialogue, negotiation, consensus building and democratic voting.  School-wide governance issues would be discussed and resolved through the once weekly General School Meeting.