Community use of school facilities in a selection of Newfoundland and Labrador schools

Nolan, Brian Francis (1973) Community use of school facilities in a selection of Newfoundland and Labrador schools. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Use of school facilities by members of the community “ is a fact of Newfoundland's history. Today there is a general feeling, especially among educators, that we are about to enter a second, more sophisticated stage of community use. This study is designed to investigate and analyse the status of community use of schools in this Province and to determine if there is any evidence of a tendency towards greater use. -- Specifically, this thesis concerned itself with: determining the extent of present use; learning the extent to which administrative policies have been developed to regulate community use; examining the feasibility of extending use of facilities; and discovering the problems associated with community use of schools. -- A survey of recent literature on this subject illustrated that the school was especially suited to after hours use and, in fact, was regarded as an economic waste if not used. Other conclusions reached as a result of the review of the literature were as follows: that most communities had needs, both covert and obvious, which could best be met through use of the school, and that planning on an architectural and administrative level are critical for effective community use. An examination was made of the administrative policies and practices currently in use in schools experiencing use after hours, and some attention was given to the various ways and means of using educational facilities. The community school, the educational park, and the community or junior college were found to be alternate school arrangements. -- The study was conducted through the questionnaire technique. A self-constructed questionnaire was mailed to a sample consisting of seventy-five school principals and the forty-three representatives of all school boards in the Province. There was an eighty- three percent overall response rate. -- The major findings included one which indicated that there was a large degree of difference between the responses of the two major groups in the study, the principals and the school board representatives. Actual conditions as perceived by the principals often varied greatly from the conditions believed to be present by the school boards. Most schools reported some use of their facilities in the after hours but some indicated that there was no extra use. School boards claimed to have policies regulating use of their schools but these were rarely communicated to principals. Policies were not comprehensive. There was agreement that schools could and should be used by community members and that problems of use were not serious enough to prevent use. Based on these findings, the researcher made a number of recommendations for action by school boards and other educational authorities.

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