Community work with NGOs and charities is another key part of the itinerary, with days dedicated to anything from painting classrooms to teaching English or cleaning beaches.
The Board of Education would face $1 million in cuts to a program that pays to put two teachers in overcrowded middle-school classes in some of the city's most troubled schools, as well as a $20 million cut in a maintenance program that includes painting classrooms, replacing curtains in auditoriums and replacing light fixtures.
Activities include painting classrooms, building furniture, teaching English pronunciation and evaluating the students' skills.
And participating in the NFL league's impressive Hometown Huddle -- a league-wide day of service that provides NFL players from all 32 teams the opportunity to take part in a variety of community service activities, such as building homes for low-income families, visiting local military bases, or painting classrooms -- is very cool, but it's not enough.
Despite the biting cold outside, a freshly painted classroom inside the school exudes warmth and happiness.
Photo: Michelle Reynolds and about 350 others from Home Depot and Jones New York painted classrooms, did landscaping and refurbished the playground yesterday at the Scholars Academy in Rockaway Park, Queens.
Of course, Mr. Bloomberg has commissioned quite a few warm and fuzzy ads as well: laudatory mini-autobiographies, ads that call attention to his charity, even one that shows him painting a classroom in a brightly splattered T-shirt.
God forbid anyone would spend that money on a crazy scheme like, say, hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes (something we know improves educational outcomes) or even painting my classroom ceiling, which currently looks as though someone has crapped through it.
Others are participating in service projects together, like painting a classroom at a Head Start center or low income school or sprucing up a common room at a homeless shelter or juvenile detention center.
Vandals who broke into Foothill Intermediate School on Cornishon Avenue, then serving as La Cañada Unified's middle school, spray-painted nine classroom doors with blue paint.
