Big or Small School Districts: Which Are Easier to Work With?

     In some recent encounters with local school districts, I have been reminded of something that seems at first to be a bit counter intuitive. When it comes to starting and leading after-school, faith-based programs inside of public school buildings, larger school districts are often easier to work with than smaller districts. I think there are several reasons for this.
     First, a larger district tends to have categories established for many types of renters and activities in their buildings. Over the years, they have received numerous requests for such use and have had to establish clear guidelines and policies. Therefore, when a church approaches them about hosting a character-formation club after school, they often have a category in which to assign this type of request. A smaller district, by contrast, often tends to "freak out" and respond with, "I'm not sure we can do this."

     Second, large districts tend to have more legal help. Some may even have their own legal departments on staff. The result of this is that their policies about equal access and free-speech-related issues will often be right in line with where the courts are currently. By contrast, I have seen school district policies that were written in the 1980's (I was in elementary school in the 80's, and I am nearly 40!). Clearly, these latter policies do not reflect the openness of more recent court decisions.
     Third, larger districts do tend to be bureaucratic. This means they are less relational and more systematized. This can be both good and bad. A big part of Crossroads' strategy for working with schools is to "make friends." With a large district, however, this usually comes after time instead of at the beginning. The good part of the bureaucracy is that decisions will be made more impartially and not based on gut feelings or whether the administration happens to like you or not.
     So, which is easier to work with: a large district or a small one? Each one has its own challenges and opportunities, and it is difficult to generalize. The point I am making in this post is simply that, although oftentimes there is a perception that larger districts are harder to work with, the opposite can be true. Much less education of the administration may be needed for them to allow access to church groups because of their many experiences, better legal policies, and established procedures (a.k.a. bureaucratic paperwork). The bottom line is that churches can and do work with schools in both large and small districts.