BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

to the acceptability of uses. State laws differ in respect to selling
or renting school space. In most cases, school and educational uses rank
first, other agencies and social services rank second and commercial and
private uses third.
24. One of the new aspects of filling empty school spaces is the reversal
of the traditional role of the school as a social service agency. Today,
it is forced to develop strategies to attract users rather than to limit
the use of its facilities to a selected group. The most common strategy
has been to employ one person with a new or special status of community
co-ordinator or director for recreation, depending on whether he is paid
by the Board of Education or the municipality. Today, out of 563 municipalities
in New Jersey, 200 provide a full-time paid director for recreation.
In more and more cases, schools become a major focus of community
recreation. The benefits, according to one of the directors, have
been mainly:
- a noticeable cut down on police calls;
- less juvenile delinquency and vandalism.
Two detailed examples, Mount Holly and Wharton (both in New Jersey) demonstrate
the effectiveness of one person who was given nothing but an empty
school. In both cases, new methods had to be found to fill the empty space.
Wharton provides a variety of ways to "market" the new program and resources
offered. Supermarkets and dentists' offices, churches, libraries, and
specialty shops provided opportunities for advertising programs. Personal
invitations to the user by mail, newspaper articles, radio and television
appearances were also effective in "selling" the community center. The
problems of co-ordination happened to be minimal in both cases since the
facilities did not house any educational functions when the community
moved in. In this respect they are the exception rather than the rule as
the "empty school phenomenon", usually leaves facilities half or quarter
empty and new uses are forced to co-exist with the previously dominant one,
namely education.
25. One major problem which seems to appear in various places is the
lack of initial funds to alter and adapt existing facilities for new
purposes. While the large purpose-built community centers in the 60's
received grants between $15 000 and $40 000 for the purpose of a coordinated
programming process, the community co-ordinator today often receives
only his salary and no additional funds for renovation or structural
changes in the school, thus depending entirely on voluntary contributions.
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