I’ll include the entire proposal below for ease of viewing. If you’d like to comment on any particular aspect of the proposal or suggest edits directly in the google doc, you can find it here:
(Education Pod Proposal - Oceanhaus - Google Docs)
Proposal Champions: Sam Ocean / Jason Thomas
Proposal Status: Draft
Governing Circle: Children’s Village
Education Pod - Oceanhaus
February 27, 2022
Statement of Proposal:
This proposal is intended to establish an education pod of 8 children at a similar development, ages 6-8, in Oceanhaus, Fuente Verde, Las Tumbas. The educational program will be a customized adaptation of Life Project and Waldorf-inspired. Life Project is an established education program in Ojochal. More information can be found at https://www.lifeprojecteducation.org.
The proposal is to host these eight children 9 am-3 pm, four days per week. Classes will be taught in English, with a significant focus on learning Spanish and becoming a bilingual culture. There will always be one certified teacher and one assistant in class. Most class time will be onsite with occasional field trips with parental permission and/or participation. Lunch will be prepared and provided in-house by a local employee of the program.
The primary objective of the education pod is to assist in stabilizing the children’s lives by offering them a consistent peer group and learning environment. The long-term aim is to provide a certified educational program that can satisfy requirements in Costa Rica and be transferable to other countries. Facility certification is among the many bureaucratic components we need to work our way through to achieve that goal.
The program will cover age-appropriate requirements for reading, writing, mathematics, and sciences with an interwoven focus on gardening, storytelling, music, and play.
Funding to seed this program is being requested to establish the needed base infrastructure improvements. Funds are also requested to subsidize the program costs for families needing financial aid.
Criteria for accepting students of this pilot program will include:
- Their families have been living in Costa Rica for at least one year or an equivalent commitment (i.e., recently bought the property and are building a house.)
- Parents/Guardians must agree with and sign the program’s terms and policies agreement (TBD by the CVC)
In determining the cost of tuition, we should consider calculating in funds needed to cover a portion of the scholarship needs and seed funding for the establishment of future education pods, including the building of a certifiable facility for long-term growth and expansion of the program’s offerings.
Context Description:
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What is the current situation as it relates to the Vision and Mission of the Diamante Bridge Collective?
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Planetary change starts with raising the next generation in a holistic way. A safe and effective place to meet our children’s educational needs is a primary need of any community. Small pods like this are experimentation stations to develop resilient teaching methods that can be scaled up and duplicated. This pod is an effort to get that process underway while starting to service a small local population.
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What positive change is needed in order to fulfill the Vision and MIssion?
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The collective needs a more substantial representation of professionals raising children to be freed up to contribute their skills and effort. It’s imperative that we create stable alternative education models for children of all ages, which will allow more families who have the resources to come and go from the region or choose to stay and deepen their roots. Many families will only do so if they have suitable education options for their children. These pilot education pods are an excellent way to meet that need in small but immediate steps.
Driver for this Proposal:
- What is being requested to address the Context?
- Assistance with acquiring an accredited bilingual teacher, affiliated through an internationally-recognized homeschool program.
- Funds
- (Described below in the Budget section)
- Curriculum Resources
- (Described below in the Materials section)
- How will it be implemented?
- Once approved by the DBC Council:
- Work will begin to find a teacher
- Surveys will be sent out to viable families
- Money will be invested into physical infrastructure needs
- Work with approved teacher and project circle to design and fine-tune the curriculum
- Purchase curriculum supplies
- Create the school-year calendar (as closely associated with the CR school calendar as is reasonable)
- Create a parent/student application form
- Design a scholarship program
- Confirm student enrollments
- Start school (June or July?)
Expected Outcomes:
What work product will be delivered that indicates the success of the project?
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Short-term Expectations
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What will we have after the project initiation period is complete?
- Happy Children
- Happy Parents
- A working model to observe and adapt to arising needs regarding children’s education
- The beginnings of a new regional kiddo-culture
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Mid-term Expectations
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Upon completion of the first school year
- Have collected data and made relevant adjustments to the program to make the following year more efficient and effective
- Bragging rights on our media channels celebrating the effectiveness of the DBC
- Confidence to seed more programs from an established working model
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Long-term Expectations
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After the second school year’s completion
- By the end of the second year, we hope to have the required data and confidence of the Collective to build a dedicated facility on a nearby land node to reach the certification needs of an accredited school.
Evaluation Specifications:
What criteria will be met, measurements achieved, or the above-mentioned outcomes will be delivered for which quality, accuracy, and efficiency can be checked?
- These will be formulated based on the requirements of the relevant legal and regulatory educational boards.
List specific objectives, systems, documents, processes, etc., that will be created and maintained, as well as how progress will be communicated, to whom, and how frequently.
- This proposal is for a pilot program and will be carefully monitored by the Children’s Village Circle. Its processes, documentation, systems, and objectives will be evaluated and modified as the Circle further defines its needs.
- The objectives and processes will be modeled by government-driven and parent-driven checkpoints. However, the focus is on parent-defined curriculum goals or projects.
Milestone Schedule:
Milestone 1
- In the second week of March, call a special meeting for local families who have children who will be in that age group within the coming year. This meeting will help to discover questions that will help to strengthen the proposal. It will also help us dial in the ideal tuition needs (Would $700/month cover it?)
Milestone 2
- Have the proposal accepted by the end of March.
Milestone 3
- Establish a Circle for the Project (Parent Committee) and get the implementation phases (mentioned above) rolling through the Asana software
Milestone 4
- Start school in June or July
Budget Requirements:
People
- Teacher salary $1200/month? with bonus incentives
- Home, vehicle, or food subsidies?
- Assistant salary $800/month
- Administrator $800/month
- accounting, legal, arrange meetings, parent engagement, supply and facility maintanance, etc.
Facilities
- Rent of half of Oceanhaus ($800/month)
- Utilities and cleaning ($150/month)
- Includes internet, electricity, gas, and water, general maintenance & groundskeeping, housekeeping
- Business and liability insurance (TBD)
- Parking lot (Possible future improvement)
Food
- One local employee to make food and clean up (11:30-1:30) (2mil/hr x 8hrs/wk = $100/month)
- Casado plates
- (12:30-1pm)
- Clean up kitchen and bathroom before leaving
- Casado plates
- Research Costa Rican requirements for salaried employees
- Lunch ingredients and fruit snacks ($250/month)
Materials
- writing and craft materials (TBD)
- Curriculum materials - books, musical instruments (TBD)
Tools & Equipment
- Folding table & chairs ($350)
- Quality printer ($350)
- Whiteboard & chalkboard w/markers and chalk ($150)
| Monthly Expenses | Salary (Teacher, Assistant, Admin) | Facilities | Insurance | Food | Materials, Tools, Equipment | Total/Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2800 | $950 | ? | $350 | ? | $4100 |
Estimated per-child costs ($600/month)
- Adding a percentage extra will give funds for scholarships and seeding future projects
Terms of this Agreement
How long is this agreement in effect, and what happens at the end?
- This proposal is to seed a pilot program and collect data to justify building a dedicated facility, ideally following the second school year.
How much is being requested, how will payments be administered?
- The amount is still being determined
- Stages of funding
- Legal/admin fees
- Seed funding for equipment and infrastructure
- Payment of staff and facility fees
- A representative of the CVC will take the determined requests for funding to the Funding Circle for approval.
- Once approved, the Funding Circle will distribute funds where needed.
When will evaluations be performed, revisions approved, and by whom?
- TBD by the CVC
Items to be discussed in the meeting:
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Terms and Policies
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Are there any non-negotiables or any other essential details that anyone would like to express for us to discuss?
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Things we have in mind
- No toys from outside (to minimize distractions)
- No media/logo-themed attire (to minimize distractions)
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Discuss strategies for finding an accredited teacher(s)
- Will they come with their own preferred curriculum?
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Financial Needs
- Review the listed needs and open discussion for elaboration
- Discuss the supplementary teacher compensation package
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Survey
- Who here filled out the previous survey?
- Does it make sense to modify the survey and send it out with a different strategy to get more relevant responses?
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DBC Circle
- I’ve come to find that the Children’s Village Circle has not been formally approved or recognized by the DBC Council. It needs to have a proposal written and submitted for discussion and vote at a Wednesday meeting. I would like to agree on a time to meet with anyone who would like to step up and take an active role in that circle and keep meetings like this moving forward.
- If you would like to actively help make more programs like this become a reality, please share your name, phone number, and email with us, along with the names and ages of any children you may have.