rtprocess

RELEASED TIME!

PROCESS FOR BEGINNING A RELEASED TIME PROGRAM

1. Research your information

A. We recommend you buy the $50.00 packet from Scripture Union which is a complete guide on how to get started in RT. Address: P.O. Box 6720, Wayne, PA 19087, Ph. 800-621-5267
B. Visit other RT programs.

2. Educate your community about RT in a low-key way. Remember this is a totally foreign concept in many ways to many people. Don't frighten them! Gently enlist support for concept.

A. Talk one-on-one with pastors, elders, deacons.
B. Talk one-on-one with parents who have children at the school(s) you plan to approach
C. Talk with key community leaders – Gideons are a good start.
D. Talk to ministerial groups.

3. Form a Steering Committee from wide base of churches across denominations.

A. Chair (Someone with time and energy. This person probably should have access to a computer and know word processing, should be able to do public speaking and have no negative baggage in terms of relationships with school board members and faculties.)
B. Prayer Coordinator
C. Secretary (Will need to have a computer and printer, will need to know how to do word processing, and will need to have time and energy.)
D. Community Relations (Must be good with media and should have good relations with many leaders in community)
E. Fundraiser
F. Bookkeeper
G. Curriculum Development and General Researcher

4. Form a consensus on your operating procedures, meetings, guidelines. Address how to build unity among all body of Christ with regard to the actual curriculum. (We avoid denominational discussions on issues such as forms of baptism for instance.) Discuss how each church can be involved in the classroom without having the revolving teacher syndrome. (We have classroom helpers and those who coordinate refreshments.) Be sure your Steering Committee members communicate with their church leadership and have the needed backing, including money.

5. Research which schools would be best suited for RT.

A. Proximity to a Church favorable to idea (Be sure that church would host program and take on the risk. The Church should have liability insurance and may want to take out additional coverage for the program.)
B. Christian Principal who would be favorable toward idea
C. Ease of scheduling

6. Find out who has friendship with the Superintendent and Board Members. Enlist their support of RT and educate them enough that they will be confident in recommending RT to their friends on the Board.
7. Develop your School Board proposal. (Sample outline is separately enclosed.)
8. Begin educating the congregations about Released Time in those churches who are supportive of the program. Pastors can be encouraged to speak from the pulpit or literature can be distributed. (Try to stay out of the media at this time. Be very careful to not attract media attention if at all possible. They don't "get it," and can only harm the program if brought in too early.)
9. Begin asking people to commit to attending the School Board meeting when you plan to address the Board even if you do not know the date yet. (Be sure your Prayer Coordinator is setting up prayer cover for all meetings coming up.)
10. Make an appointment with the Superintendent and, if possible, take a friend of his with you to the meeting. Take your very professional proposal packets with you, along with a video clip, if possible. In this meeting, you are asking to be put on the agenda for the next board meeting. You ask if he would like his office to send out the RT packets to the Board or if you should mail them.
11. If you know of favorable principles and teachers, you can now alert them to your plans and enlist their support, if at all possible.
12. Alert your supporters that the proposal is out. Tell them the details of the meeting so they can attend. Phone calls from personal friends of the Board members would be beneficial to encourage them to give serious attention to the RT proposal.
13. Know how much time you are allowed to speak. Have the Chair or the Pastor of the church hosting the RT program to speak asking for permission for the program. Have a parent and a student also speak, if possible. Make them aware that media attention will be something they have to endure.
14. From this point forward, if your experience is anything like ours, there will be many months of follow-through. You will constantly need to have a presence at the board meetings, whether RT is on the agenda or not. Often, you may want to get one or two parents or students to speak for RT during the public comment time. This always needs to be positive and not an attack in any way. You will need to have people write letters of support to the Board and Superintendent. You will need parents to talk with their principals and teachers. You will need some students to take a lead and get FCA students to do poster petitions asking for RT. These posters should go to the Board. You will need letters to the editor in your newspapers. You will need television and radio interviews favorable to RT. You can continue to have speakers give talks in church meetings, civic clubs, have a booth at a spring festival or community event. PR is very important during this time. You will also need to do fund raising so you can be prepared for curriculum costs. Also, this PR time can be expensive. (We spent about $100.00 each month.) Keep adding coals to the fire and pray.
15. You will also need to continue to develop your relationship with the Superintendent and staff. You are working on building a trusting relationship with them. Never be hostile in any way.. Meetings will be necessary to hammer out details. Have one-on-one meetings with the School Board members. The Board Chairperson is key to this battle as well as the Board member who is elected from that district where the pilot program has been proposed. Our Chair suggested a survey of parents at the proposed school. However, we informed the Board that such a survey could not be paid for with tax dollars, so we volunteered to develop and foot the bill for the survey.
16. Keep alert to the time when RT will be put back on the agenda for a vote. This will be a very important time to gather your supporters to all attend this meeting. Never forget prayer is a key factor at all times. Fasting may be necessary.
17. Once approval is granted, you will be working out scheduling details with the Principal.
18. In order to sign up students, you will need to get the mailing list of students' parents from the school. You will need to mail out a permission form to be signed and returned to the Principal's office, a letter from your RT Committee, a description of the course.
19. Hopefully, your Steering Committee long ago agreed on curriculum, teachers, and the like. You need to buy books, Bibles, supplies, notebooks, etc. If your Board has mandated an evaluation at the end of the pilot, you also need a student pre-test for the first day of class. This pre-test must take into account all class material which will be covered. At the last day of class students will take the same test to evaluate how much they have learned in the course. Be prepared to give the test to other students who join in the 2nd or 3rd class.
20. Be sure you have in place all the helpers you need. We always have someone doing refreshments for the kids, someone who comes in to help mark off their memory verses, and classroom volunteers. Have umbrellas ready, video player, tape player, overhead projector, white board as necessary. You will need your helpers to be your chaperones for the students walking over. Have a stop sign with you if they have to cross a road. You will need at least three people for this task. Take roll as you meet the students at the school. Send the roll up immediately to the Principle's office with your third person as the other two adults chaperone students to the church. Take roll for your own records once in the classroom.
21. You will have your own format for classroom activities. But, students do need variety and breaks if you have a long class. Make it fun to learn. If you give homework, be sure it is not overwhelming and offer rewards for doing the homework. We do recommend one-page quizzes which help them take the work seriously. Papers can be sent home, but grades do not count in school.
22. Communicate with parents at home after the first couple of weeks. The teachers should call and introduce themselves and get some feedback. Communicate with the students each week by sending a postcard of encouragement. You can plan a RT event such as a Saturday cookout to get to know each other better. Relationships with school faculties should be developed. What kind of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter reach-out ministry would help the school, students, and families? Get churches involved.
23. At the end of the course, give out certificates or T-shirts with RT logos, plan a pizza party or celebrate in some way. Also, give students and parents the information they need to follow-up with Board members and the Superintendent and faculties so that they can help ensure the program continues. Without their input, it could be dropped.
24. Evaluation begins most likely. You should have forms for students, parents, RT teachers, school faculties to fill out to evaluate the program.
25. You may need to work with the media to get the coverage you need to continue PR efforts.
26. Go back to the Board (with supporters) and ask for the program to continue, expand, be permanent or whatever you are prepared to handle.

For further information or to sign up
please call: (423)378-4863
Tennessee Released Time Christian Education
P. O. Drawer 6
Kingsport, TN 37662

BETTER KIDS MAKE BETTER SCHOOLS!