Okay, we have had two related stories in the Herald Dispatch in the last couple of weeks.
Cabell County BOE doesn’t plan to hire many teachers this coming year because we are “over” the state formula for faculty by 63 and we need to get that number down. Seriously, that is what they said! They use some formula that I am sure is meant to be the MINIMUM number of teachers allowed and that means we need to get rid of some teachers.
And then comes the other shoe (I guess there might be up to 62 more shoes!).
They are getting rid of the assistant band director at Huntington High.
In the midst of this, we have the HD report that HHS has the worst graduation rate in the tri-state. Coincidence, hmmmm….
I will remind you of the research showing that students do better in schools where they are involved and engaged and have someone who cares about them. Cutting a music teacher is certainly not living up to the promise we keep being given about how the larger schools provide “more opportunities”.
I will remind you again of my own school experience at a small public school in Vermont. There were 63 kids in my graduating class. We had a junior-senior high school, so it was grades 7-12. We only had one band teacher (there was also a part-time choir teacher and a part-time strings teacher who was shared with the elementary), but we had (if I remember correctly) a concert band, a marching band and a rock band. We had free music lessons on our instrument (usually with 1 or 2 other students at the same level on the same instrument, so I had clarinet lessons with 2 other girls in my class) during the school day. There was a required “intro to music” class. We had ONE HUNDRED KIDS in band. At HHS, the student body hovers around 1700 students. My friend Jerry says there are 90 kids in band. Now they will have ONE teacher. No music lessons. How is this giving our students more opportunities??
Jerry reported that it was explained that the student body at HHS is expected to be down by 43 students for next year. So they are getting rid of THREE teachers! Because we MIGHT have 43 fewer students? And the band teacher is a good choice because, apparently, there is no state regulation about how many students can be in band with only one teacher (as opposed to other classes, where there is a mandated maximum class size).
(This is what I just posted on the HD comments:Is it a coincidence if only 70% of the music students get their choice and that just shy of 70% of HHS students are graduating in 4 years? It has been shown numerous times that in schools where students have a “connection”, they do better academically. Lots of times this means an extracurricular activity. I keep hearing that the larger, consolidated schools offer more “opportunities” for students, but I have yet to see that actually happening. HHS has nearly 1700 students and the band is the same size as the band in my tiny high school’s. That is a far smaller percentage of students who are or are ABLE to participate in band. And I’m sure this is the same for other extracurricular activities as well.
I don’t have kids in high school yet, but my guess is that Mr. Richardson had no choice about what night he would need to go to the BOE and fight for his job. And neither did he probably ask someone at the concert to talk about it. But how else will people find out? I mean, before it is already a done deal?
I am happy that Suzanne Oxley did the right thing, even if it didn’t save Mr. Richardson’s job at HHS or keep him in the program there, helping kids.
I am confused by tanstaafl’s comment about teachers never getting RIFed. Apparently they DO. And if this man isn’t “really” losing his job, he and others are certainly losing continuity, and so are the students. Last week the HD had a story about how the county has “63 extra positions” over the state formula for faculty. The central office wants to get this number down. How do you suppose that is going to happen? I’m fairly sure that means we’ll have fewer teachers next year. The board office tries to confuse us into thinking we aren’t losing teachers–most frequently it seems that they just do not replace teachers who retire and they say that we haven’t lost any positions, when in reality they just haven’t fired or RIFed anyone. We still end up with fewer teachers for our students.)
March 31, 2008 at 8:49 am |
Mr. Richardson did not lose his position, however, 48 other teachers did and no one bothered to mention that on WSAZ or in the Herald-Dispatch. Seems a little one-sided in this whole situation.