I started teaching at West Bend West in 1999 and at first I could not understand why a community would want two high schools in one building. But it didn’t take me long to realize the tremendous benefits this configuration offered to students. At that time, there was a concerted effort to keep West students with West teachers and East students with East teachers whenever possible. I taught five sections of Global Studies – a required class for freshmen – so my classes were overwhelmingly West students. So I could, for the most part, count on them having one of three English 9 teachers, and one of three Earth Science teachers, as well as just a handful of Math teachers. I could also count on them having one of three school counselors, and I knew who their principal was as there was only 1 West High School freshman principal. This close-knit group of educators was able to monitor and address many of our students’ issues because we could operate as a small team. We were able to give students all of the benefits of attending a small school. However, because of the two school/one building configuration, they also had access to all of the benefits of attending a large school as we could offer more specialized classes and programming because we could draw from the student body of both schools. There were some glitches, but the benefits far outweighed the inconveniences that popped up on occasion. However, in the interest of cutting the budget, the small school benefits have been eliminated in the last three years, as the goal becomes to fill classrooms to the brink, rather than fill them with students from the same school. My 9th graders could have one of nine English 9 teachers, one of seven Biology teachers and any of a large number of Math teachers. There is no longer a single administrator for West 9th graders, and they could have any of the seven school counselors in the building. In the past, students were familiar with most of their classmates, as they all attended the same, small school and I knew most of the students in the hallway as they were, for the most part, from West. Today, my students often do not know each other, and there is a dangerous anonymity in the halls. It’s tougher to discipline students you do not know, and tougher for them to make good choices when they are unknown. We have lost the coveted small school feel and are in danger of losing it forever with the upcoming vote on whether to become 1 school. The real choice for kids, and their vital education, isn’t even on the agenda and that’s the choice to go back to being two schools. It’s worth the time and the investment to offer our community’s students the opportunities of both a small school and a large school under one roof. It was a set of benefits that made the West Bend School District stand out in the past, as we were able to offer students something no other district could. Isn’t it time to start giving our children that unique set of benefits again?
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:42:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015