In an August 5th missive to parents of students at John Stark High School, Principal Gary Dempsey outlined some curriculum changes. Sadly, most Engineering courses have been canceled. These include Welding, Small Engines, and all Physics courses.
A local source tells me that the teacher quit for better pay in another district, and that Administration believes that this is the voters’ fault for refusing to approve the latest proposed school district budget.
But every budget, like every library or curriculum, is about choices.
This administration was unable to capture the interest of “certified,” qualified” candidates for any of these open positions. What about qualified uncertified candidates? And if you can’t bring them in, why, and is that your fault or someone else’s?
The Administration can’t find someone to teach small engine repair or welding, but they can offer an Intro to Arabic Language and Culture class.
School administrators make choices based on their own priorities, including how many non-productive staff and administrators there are and how much they make.
What’s Necessary
Here’s a great clip from one of ‘Grok Contributor Ian Underwood’s presentations (we shared the whole thing here) that I was going to use in a Morning Update, but it fits this situation (IMO) perfectly. He’s referencing NH court education language in the context of curriculum. What is necessary to fulfill our constitutional obligation to turn children into well-informed future citizens.
To be fair, in this context, you aren’t going to make every kid take welding, small engines, or physics. But you aren’t going to make kids take Intro to Arabic language and culture either, clearly. They can only offer the class if enough students are interested, but they chose to make money available for it. Maybe they think these future Dhimmis at JSHS should have a head start on how to be an infidel slave?
Choices.
These are choices administrators make about priorities. Just like reading lists or what you find in the school or public library. You choose those titles the same way John Stark High School chose to drop some classes and adopt others.
Physics is out, but Arabic Culture is in.
IN truth, they could scrap all of that and put a lot more emphasis on literacy, civics, critical thinking, and numeracy. Things future citizens actually need, not just to be informed voters or future legislators, but that make them capable of learning anything else they might want, outside the public school or throughout life, including Small Engine, Physics, or Arabic, if they wanted or needed it.
NICHE.com gives JSHS a C- for Academics, probably due to the 22% proficiency score they get for math. Correct me if I’m wrong, but who is passing physics with a math proficiency of 22%? Skip the Arabic and the physics and get them all proficient in math.
And I didn’t look, but I noted that somewhere in the administrative hierarchy there were bloated non-productive salaries you could have cut to address assessment shortcomings and salary shortages if that was something you truly wanted to do.
You didn’t.
Here’s a screen grab of the email to parents.
