"This is a historic moment for Joplin and for our nation," Superintendent C. J. Huff said.
Huff said he will present a copy of the new JHS course catalog to Gov. Jay Nixon Wednesday. "I will be handing the governor of Missouri our course handbook."
Nixon will be in Joplin for the ribbon-cutting at the new Soaring Heights Elementary School.
Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer said the new courses and the ideas, including students designing their own classes with the help of teachers, had enthusiastic backing from DESE (the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).
"Nobody in the country is doing this," Besendorfer said. "This is groundbreaking."
All of the extra courses will not affect the district budget, Besendorfer said. "We're not going to break the bank."
Board member Annie Sharp asked, "Are we hiring more teachers?"
High School Principal Kerry Sachetta said there would be no need to hire any new teachers in the core areas, which would indicate that since the number of core classes are going to be increased, including diferent sections of all four years of English for students, depending on which of the five career pathways they chose, that Joplin High School teachers may be asked to triple or even quadruple their workload, or perhaps even more, since individual students are being encouraged to work with faculty members to create new classes.
What will be historic is the number of teachers that leave in one year. The last two years will be nothing compared to this year.
ReplyDeleteThe bank is already broken. There is no more money. So these new classes will not be any better supported than the ones they already have. Waste of time.
ReplyDeleteGee, a board member asked a question!!! That's historic. But then she goes ahead and votes with the rest of them like a good girl, even after being given an ignorant response. Typical.
ReplyDeleteMaybe no one else is doing it because it's a stupid idea.
ReplyDeleteOh gee. CJ is going to cry again and have another photo op with the governor. Did any of them give a rats ass what they were doing to the teachers over there? No. They never do.
ReplyDeleteThat seals the deal for me. Color me gone.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is a high school teacher and has six different classes. Big whiners at the big school if you ask me. It seems Randy forgot what it was like at the little schools.
ReplyDeleteAnne Sharp is a kind person who is on the school board because she truly cares about the kids and our schools. She attends pretty much every single event or game or play or tournament in the district, and she volunteers at some of the schools, too, helping the kids with their reading or math. And she's done that for years, long before she was ever on the school board---she's just a champion of our schools and local kids. I believe she has an education degree, but I don't know if she has ever taught. (I have no idea what the teachers think of her; I'm not a teacher.) That said, she doesn't seem to have a lot of solutions to the overwhelming problems facing this district, so she goes along too often with the others. Her heart is in the right place, though, and I don't believe she is part of the problem, so I don't think it helps to insult her here in the comments.
ReplyDeleteI was a teacher in R8 and she came to everyone of my schools'' activities & took photos, gave each school a Christmas basket, sent each of us a birthday cards ..& was so quiet & unassuming...still get cards from her even tho I retired...I think the world of her & her kindness...
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