Overworked, But Still Smiling: Q&A

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

by Aeron Roberts

Mr. Cummings, an important member of the OHCHS staff, is an ed-tech for the entire school. This involves working in the library, maintaining  all the AV equipment, and running the Key Club, a student-run community service organization which does fundraisers and other activities beneficial to the community and school. Along with this Cummings also keeps all the netbooks (an estimated 1000) in running order. I decided to ask him a few questions because I began to wonder how he keeps up with his job.


Q: How long  have you been working at OHCHS?

A:  Seven years. I wasn’t expecting to stay in ed-tech for this long.

Q: Why OHCHS ?

A: Well Aeron I grew up here and even went to school here - thought it was a lot smaller when I was here compared to now. I graduated 1987 and have lived here all my life.

Q: Due to the netbooks being in the hands of most students (only 100 or so do not have a netbook), how has this effected your workload and your relationship with the students?

A: Well Aeron, I have a 40 hour week and 99 percent of my time is spent fixing the netbooks. It has effected my relationship with the students negatively because I only get to see them when they break their netbooks.

Q: Why does every student now have a user fee? (For those who don't go to school here every kid has to pay a fee before they can have their netbook. It goes by what you pay for lunch: $20 if you pay full price, $15 if you are on reduced lunch, and $10 for people who get free lunch.)

A: The warranty on the netbooks expired Aeron , so we need to pay for the repairs out of are our own pockets. That means we all need to pitch in to buy new hard drives, [new] screens and [do] other repairs."

Q: Where do you see the netbook program going in five years?

A: Aeron , I can see this going very well as long as we get the money to pay for it. What I mean is if the economy goes back up then everything else will be okay.

Even with an almost tripled workload compared to two years ago, Mr.Cummings is still a very upbeat individual. He always has time for students. He seems to really care about this school and the people who graduate from it. So when you see him in the halls say hi and if you are dropping your netbook off, say thank-you.