Brubaker Secondary School Discussion

Brubaker Secondary School

This page is the development page for a school we want to throw onto the grid! It occurred to us sitting around the OOC room that there's plenty of adults who were really interested in being involved with a crappy inner-city hellhole school, and plenty of child characters whose parents were too rich or Evolved to permit their kids to end up there, so something had to be done to try to bring them into the same RP circle.

The solution we figured out would be to have a school that looked really good on the surface, which parents, even wealthy parents, would send their kids to, but which still had catastrophic problems that weren't being addressed, so the characters who wanted to struggle with the issues could still struggle with them and not feel like they were being blown off.

It wouldn't in any way be mandatory for PC (or NPC, for that matter) kids to attend here, this is just a bit of a drama crucible that we want to set up for those that want to jump in.

This page is to work up details about the school and who would be involved, and how.

On The Surface

On the surface, the school should appear to be quite good - high graduation rates, high college achievement rates. It should teach grades 7-12, to maximize the kid/parent characters that can get involved.

Post your thoughts here, especially if you are a parent character! It should definitely be prestigious.

Lee: I think it should be a private school, though not necessarily as hoity-toity as some. This allows us to say that the school's always solved problems in the past by expulsion and coverups instead of addressing systemic or institutional issues that provoke the problems.

Mel: Private school works. If you want it to be less hoity-toity, you could say that it's a non-profit private school. In my experience, they are slightly less snobbish than the for-profit, gouge-parents-for-all-they're-worth schools.

I just pulled the name Brubaker Secondary School out of nowhere, if you have another idea, post it here:

Underneath the Surface

The school has a big, big problem under the surface, and the administration has no interest in putting forth the effort to address it. They would rather cover it up and pass the buck. This leaves it on the heroes to address it.

Post your thoughts here, especially if you are a student or a teacher character!

Lee: I think the classic school problem, drugs, would be more than sufficient to distort the normality of the school beneath the surface. Blackmail, loansharking, trading sex for drugs, and so on, all inevitably follow once it's gotten its hooks into a student body. The administration then tries to isolate the worst delinquents and pulls teachers in from inner city schools who are "experienced with at-risk youth", essentially setting them up to fail by further alienating them from the rest of the school. Looked down on by other teachers, alternately feared and smirked at by other students, and so on.

Church: Pulling teachers from crappy schools can also help if they are looking to axe paying as much salary as other schools. Untenured teachers, teachers assumed sub-par, non-certified professors in a private system, etc., makes it probable to pay them less. That would also allow characters with degrees and such to likely teach in a private setting, regardless of if they have the cooresponding teaching degree.

Lee: I am going to put a first draft of the "school's problems" on the main page. Please review it and edit it up. Discuss it here if need be.

People Involved With The School

Tell us what you are after in school-related RP, and how you think your character might fit in at the school, as a parent, teacher, student, administrator, or other staff member! Put yourself on the main page and delete yourself from here once you're done discussing.

Mel: I have no idea how she'll fit into the school, but I have Mae, who can absolutely be a student here. She'll probably get into enough trouble by running her mouth to wind up in Church's office. I'll have to figure out a more concrete idea for her plans than, um. The lack of planning I have right now. But yes. Mae = student!

Evelyn: Hah. Guidance Counselor spy. ;) For me, Evelyn-as-student, definitely. Beyond that? I'm open to anything. Or I can just toss her in to RP and see if something interesting comes out of it. Ev' could easily transfer in here for her last year; she'd be a glaring exception to the general issues. At least in the beginning. Anything can happen.

Kitty: Seeing as Kitty just finished college she is looking for a job and has hopefully found one at the school! She has a BA in English but I think she would mostly just be helping around the school, like with office work and teacher aids, but I'm up for anything really RP wise.

Annabelle: Hey there, Annabelle could be a student here, too. She's good friends with Mae and into sports. Fun times?

Sero: I somehow have three parent characters whose children could conceivably go here: Niki (kid: Micah, obviously, that is if we've decided it starts at grade 7), Desiree (Portia and NPC Parker), and Miranda (Mae and NPC Michelle and, um, I'm not sure how old Alison is). Desiree would probably get the most involved in parent-y stuff to help out the school.

Portia: See Sero. Portia would probably go there. She'd be likely to participate in all sorts of activities.

William: Will was recruited at the same time as Lee to come teach here. He will be filling in holes in the Math program and teaching a one or two classes each at several different grade levels. (i.e. the classes the other teachers didn't want)

Other Notes

Post anything else related to the school, school plots, or support that you can think of here.

Lee: I'm thinking that as far as a building goes, we'll want a Classrooms room (including all classrooms, labs, etc.), an Administrative room (including all offices, teacher's lounge, etc.), a Commons room (including lunchrooms, libraries, etc.) and an Outdoors room (including fields, playgrounds, etc.). Maybe an NPC principal, assistant principal that anyone can use… I'll write up what I can for them and post them here…

Church: I like that way of it. We can either make the descs a bit long, or include a multi-desc program on it? that way, the school would perhaps have 4-5 rooms and include everything.

Evelyn: I have room-multidesc code for a MUX. I bet it can be adapted.

Mel: Private schools lend them to several fundraisers throughout the school year, which are ample opportunities for parents, teachers, staff and students to all mingle in the same room— and for drama to happen. It's exactly the time when you want the school to look good, and it's also usually when everything that can go wrong DOES go wrong. There's also a lot of parent involvement in private schools, much of the time, so the parents would be around the school often in a volunteer capacity, if anyone's wondering how they'd get their parent involved in the school RP. You know, aside from the typical parent-teacher scandal.

Church: Amen, Mel.

(Scandal what scandal that wasn't me what you must be mistaken)

Portia: Fun scene ideas: For involvement of students and others, there's always school dances, which need chaperones. Not to mention field trips (high schools do this still, I swear they do, mine did!) and all sorts of clubs. Clubs at my school always needed a faculty advisor… so that could be interesting. School drama productions and talent shows could be interesting, as well as a science fair!

Church: Dances, Clubs, Play/Musical/one of both, totally. Homecoming and Prom, fo sho, and maybe even like, Holiday dances, etc. We can all relive our High School shenanigans. :O

There is now a very basic single-room description of the school up. The next step will be to improve it (here) and solidify plans. It sounds like we have plenty of people! That is awesome.

Church: Are we gonna try using Eve's multidesc? And roomwise: Classrooms, Common Rooms, School Grounds, Administration? Four rooms with multidescs/long descs, and that parent room that Lee has up right now. That is Five rooms, which seems great to me!

ALSO. MASCOT. WHAT IS IT. DISCUSS. COLORS TOO.

Okay, now that we've filled up the wiki page with possibilities, everyone delete ONE color scheme and mascot that they absolutely refuse to have. (By the by, you should have only put one possibility on the wiki, did you cheat?)

Mustangs
Broncos
Cougars
Hornets
Bees
Spartans
Cavaliers
Bobcats
Lions
Bulls
Centaurs
Boilermakers
Longhorns
Hellhounds
Bison
Whitetails
Barbarians
Pucks
Harpies
Bandits
Hellcats
Raptors
Rexes
Dactyls
Ogres
Gargoyles
Beavers
Panther
Snapping Turtles

Evelyn: Gargoyles: juxtaposition. The pretty-looking school with an ugly heart has as its mascot an ugly thing supposedly capable of warding off evil.

Black and Gold
Blue and White
Purple and Gold
Light blue, Orange and White
Blue and Gold
Green, Black and White
Red and Gold/Yellow
Green and Yellow
White and Gold
Red and White
Burgundy and Yellow
Black, Silver and Light/Blue
Red, Black and White
Dark green and Orange
Orange, Black and White
Black and Blue
Green, Gold, and White
Blue and Silver

Kitty: Loving the black and blue with Gargoyles as the Mascots!

Lee: I also like Gargoyles, but I'm not thrilled about black/blue.

Nima: If opting for the Gargoyles (and I dig Evelyn's take), I'm gonna be cheeky and suggest various shades of grey. Or, if you'd prefer, black & grey. Or black, white & grey. Boo on Lee for dissing the bruises color scheme! Boo! (Lee: Just because I'm not thrilled doesn't mean it's not a good idea!)

Church: Gargoyles was such a random thought on my part, so I'm glad people liked it. XD; Black, light blue, silver? Those three, in order of prevalence on logos/etc?

Portia: I'm liking the Gargoyles, just cause it's unique enough to be interesting. I like the idea of blue and silver/grey. Maybe a grey or silver gargoyle with blue eyes?

Sero: Blue, silver, white, black, etc. reminds me of Claire's school in Costa Verde from Season Two.

Evelyn: Blue and silver were the colors of my RL high school, so they're fine by me. ;)

Church: ahahSero. I forgot about that. We could always make it dark blue, silver, and white. I like darker blue regardless of CV, though.

Also! Uniforms: Yes/No?

Lee: I say yes!

Nima: Nothing says, "No, really, we are a serious institution," like uniforms.

Church: Good on ya. I like the idea of uniforms, but not necessarily those like Catholic schools or something. Colors and types of clothes, I guess. As long as they fit a uniform 'standard', maybe?

Portia: I'm kinda half and half on the uniform. I think something a little nicer is kind of cool, but I agree with Church about it not being like Catholic school uniforms. I went to a Catholic school once. Lets just say those uniforms are not always so flattering. In fact they aren't, most of the time.

Sero: Uniforms, yes! I seem to recall some of the teenage-appers being like, "We have to go to a school with uniforms! *DONE* *APPS*"

Evelyn: Personally, not a big fan of uniforms, but Nima has a good point. I think it'd be good to have. 'Colors and types of clothes' would probably do; maybe OOCly consider it as a little less 'standard uniform' and more 'extremely restrictive dress code'?

Lee: On a television show I recently saw a "uniform" which was a colored shirt with a collar and khaki pants, each grade level having their own color. (Blue for 7th graders, maroon for 8th graders, etc.) Definitely not 'tie and trousers' uniform, but it made it pretty clear…some good ideas here…

Church: That's kinda what I meant, Eve. A dress code wherein one ends up with a uniform-like standard.

William: It could be a basic uniform like dress pants or skirts of a certain length with collared shirts. But I think there's nothing that quite says private school like a uniform (even though some public ones have them.)

Mel: Every private school here has a uniform except for one. The school I work for has simple skirts (actually skorts, but you can't tell there are shorts underneath the skirt at all) for the girls, pants or shorts for the boys, all grey. Shirts are usually polos, t-shirts with the school logo, or sweatshirts. The kids are allowed to wear their sweatpants, which is part of their gym uniform, every day. They have a 'formal uniform' (grey skirt/dress pants, dress shirt or polo, blazer or red cardigan) that they have to wear for some field trips, open house days, graduation, etc. I think a uniform is the best idea, if it's a private school, but "uniform" can be "list of clothing provided by the school; you can mix and match from this list." The theory behind having uniforms for private schools is that you're trying to make a positive, lasting impression on the community in order to attract new families, and you remember a bunch of kids all wearing crisp, clean uniforms that all look the same with the school logo more than you remember a group of teenagers all wearing whatever they want. Easier to identify the school if all the kids wear uniforms!

Lee: Mel's suggestion is also endorsed by the Rockstar game Bully, one of the very bestest games to involve putting nerds in garbage cans and giving jocks swirlies.

Main Page

Church: Made a first run main page where this one used to be. Picked some generic school hours and such too.

Church: Main page now has a tentative logo!

Lee: Logo is badass.

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