CAMPAIGN UPDATE:
What’s Happening at Harmony Education Center?
HEC announced the first phase of our Capital Campaign last May. Each part of Harmony Education Center has been very busy during this early part of the Capital Campaign. Here’s an update.

RHINO’S YOUTH CENTER: EXPANSION PLANS
Rhino’s director Brad Wilhelm reports that the youth center operated by HEC becomes a “teenager” as it begins its 13th year. That growth has triggered a substantial expansion! Rhino’s will be moving to larger quarters in the same mall space this summer, allowing more young people to participate in the audio and video production programs, more safe capacity for band performances and the mural project, and additional meeting and office space. Lighting and sound will also be upgraded and the result will be a more flexible facility for use by other users of the space. Full details will be announced soon. Fund raising is starting to finance the $100,000 move-in construction and technology costs. This is good news for a successful after-school and weekend program that’s been bursting at its seams!

INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AT IU’S SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Things are also changing gears at our Institute for Research at IU’s School of Education (SOE), reports Prof. Jesse Goodman, director. Following the announcement of the HEC-SOE partnership last Fall additional fundraising has been sought, primed by a lead gift from an anonymous donor of $100,000 and a promise of additional support from School of Education Dean Gerardo M. Gonzalez. An advisory Board is now being formed with early members including Dr. Joe MacDonald, Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University, and Donald Pemberton, Director of the Lastinger Center at the University of Florida.

HARMONY SCHOOL
Enrollment is up to 187 students at Harmony this year, according to Director Steve “Roc” Bonchek. The new windows and expansion into the lower level spaces are already having an impact on the school experience.

Everyone is looking forward to construction in the following summers when the inside of the building will start to benefit more directly. Collaborative meetings involving students and faculty have discussed building use. Major donors are needed to help fund rewiring the building, lighting, technology upgrades, installing a full commercial kitchen, and other very important projects. The goal, Bonchek reminds us, is not to increase enrollment but to provide a better teaching and learning environment.

He adds that the scholarship fund is a critical part of the Capital Campaign for Harmony Education Center.

Bonchek is also proud that Harmony School has received Gates Foundation funding to mentor a new small high school somewhere in the country (see related story on page 5).

NATIONAL SCHOOL REFORM FACULTY
Harmony Education Center is the national home for the NSRF, which offers intensive professional development for educators. The NSRF operates through 28 Centers of Activity around the country. Last year another 800 coaches participated in NSRF-conducted training seminars, bringing the pool of active trained coaches to over 12,000. The 9th annual Winter Meeting of NSRF coaches and facilitators was held this year in Boston.

NATIONAL SCHOOL REFORM FACULTY: ON FIXING OUR SCHOOLS We are going against the tide of governmental and other policy organizations that pretend there is one right answer and one quick fix — that issues in education can be reduced to one solution, can be fixed by one-size-fits-all legislation. We know better. Faced with standardization — we willingly embrace, grapple with, and hold the messiness, ambiguity, and questions that arise when the human dynamic is involved. Gene Thompson-Grove, Founding Co-Director of the National School Reform Faculty, from her welcoming speech at January’s Winter Meeting for NSRF coaches.

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