We've got great news --- the Baltimore Free School has a real home! Come September, we're moving into 1323 N. Calvert Street, right on the southeast corner of Calvert and Mt. Royal. The new space is a ground level storefront with lots of windows in a great location --- and, since it's split into two separate classroom spaces, it means we're going to be able run two courses simultaneously. We'll be hosting an open house and celebration to wrap up the pilot session and kick-off classes in the new space in early September --- more details forthcoming soon.

But we need your help to turn this empty storefront into a thriving space for free education.  Here's what you can do to help:

TEACH A COURSE!

We're accepting proposals right now for courses to start on or after September 21st. These proposed courses can be any length --- from one session courses to courses that'll meet every day for the rest of the year or beyond, and everything in between. They can start in mid-September, or later --- we're hoping to be as flexible as we can in scheduling courses anytime instructors and interested learners decide to make one happen, so the process of course proposals and scheduling is going to be on a continuous, rolling basis. And since we have a full-time space (with two classrooms!) dedicated to the Free School now, we're basically going to be accepting and scheduling proposals as soon as they come in. Got a course idea? Then make a user account for this site if you don't already have one (see the link in the left hand column), and propose a course! If you're having computer trouble and can't figure out how to do this, email us at freeschool@redemmas.org and we'll walk you through it.

HELP US GET THE SPACE READY!

Keep an eye on the mailing list and/or this site for details about an upcoming cleaning day to spruce up the new space! We'd love your help!

We're also looking for some free or very cheap items we need to get the space functional, if you can help us find any of the following:

• folding tables
• shelves
• office/school supplies like paper, pens, pencils, markers
• whiteboards (any size, but a big wall mounted one would be great)
• a coffeemaker and an electric water kettle
• lamps

then let us know at freeschool@redemmas.org.

HELP US PAY THE RENT!

The space we've settled on is bigger than the space we originally had in mind, and consequently we're going to need to come up with more money than the $500/month target we had initially set -- we're likely to need somewhere around $900/month total once all the expenses are factored in. If you'd like to become a monthly sustainer of the Free School, or would like to make a one-time contribution to help us with the start-up expenses, you can do so online or by mailing a check to "Red Emma's", 800 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202, with "Free School" in the the memo field.

If you'd like to make a sizable, tax-deductible donation, we should have a way to do that as well in a couple of weeks - stay tuned!

SPREAD THE WORD!

We'll be putting together a general Free School flyer soon --- we'd love help getting these out all across Baltimore, to make the community of teachers and learners we're building here to be as diverse as possible. And once proposals for courses get scheduled, we'll be putting out a monthly calendar that we'll also need to get distributed far and wide.

No grades no masters,

The Baltimore Free School Organizing Committee