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Greenville High
School – Fact vs Fiction
By Chris Mortensen
Principal
Several questions were asked about the Greenville educational system
and how this compares with the past, its future and other educational
institutions. I will explain each question and in doing so I
would emphasize that no statements are being made about any aspects or
educational programs being better than another, but only unique in the
method of delivering services.
The first question was regarding the statement by members of the
community that there is concern for the need for security at the school
campus of Greenville High School. It seemed to me that the gist
of the question was that the need for a security officer indicated that
the high school is unsafe. When I came to the high school as an
assistant principal there were two security officers monitoring the
campus daily and had been for years prior to me coming to the high
school. Over the past seven years the number has been reduced to
one resource officer for the campus.
Does the presence of a resource officer on the campus show that there
is a need for police support? I would suggest that having a
police presence on campus provides us the ability to deal with the
POTENTIAL for problems given our campus configuration. Newer
buildings have been built specifically with building security in mind;
when our building was built in 1962, security was not an issue or a
consideration. The new buildings allow for a closed campus, which
is a benefit that Greenville High School is working toward, but has yet
to be able to incorporate. We are doing the best with the limited
funds that we have to make these updates.
The comment has been made that discipline is up and students are out of
control. This is far from factual. We track discipline
information on a monthly basis as we work toward trying to find the
most efficient methods to assist students in being successful and work
through the intricacies of teenage life. All schools must deal
with this and anyone who states differently is either not connected
with teenagers or perhaps just very naive.
Discipline at the high school is significantly down from all previous
years that we have tracked over the past eight years. We have had
a downward trend over the past three years, and are on track to achieve
our lowest discipline numbers since I became an administrator. A
person who believes that placing 1,000 students together should operate
with no issues is very idealistic and also short sighted.
All of the above has been achieved while seeing over a 12% increase in
the number of economically disadvantaged population in the district and
a high number of students requiring assistance having special
educational needs. These are the components which traditionally
cause discipline numbers to increase.
The comment was also made that some parents are considering taking
their students to other school districts because they operate on a
block schedule with only four classes during the semester to focus
on. This also allows more time for the student to focus on the
content, instead of 45 minutes; they would have 90 minutes in the
class. Granted, each model that exists has its own unique
benefits.
The problem parents find when they look at the eight periods of class
verses the block schedule of only four periods with double the time, is
that they have not analyzed why a school would keep the eight period
days. Here is a piece of that answer…the block schedule provides
math for two periods per day for four months and the eight period day
provides one period of math per day for nine months.
One negative aspect of this kind of schedule is the potential time
between classes that build upon one another. For instance, a
student who has Algebra I as a freshman may not take Algebra II, or any
other math course, until as much as eight months after his last math
class and potentially could be an even longer time span depending on
scheduling. If you believe that students tend to lose a large
amount of their learning over the summer, which consists of three
months, then just imagine how much will be lost with an extra five
months off without contact to the subject content. Again, each
has its benefits, but each has its draw backs as well.
It seems like the answer is a longer school day to provide more
class time in the subject areas, while providing less time for breaks
in the summer. After all, why was the school schedule set up the
way it was originally? The answer is farming and a need for a
labor force. With the advancements in farming there is less need
for this mass labor force during the summer months meaning that the
original need for the break has long since passed away. Our
problem has always been that we like tradition. I know my kids
would never opt for a longer school day or more days of education, but
in reality this would be beneficial to their educational development.
Another comment was that numbers in classes have increased affording
less individual time for assistance and remediation where
needed. I would agree that, with the budget cuts our
district has been forced to make over the past several years, that the
average student-teacher ratio for the district in general and the high
school in particular has gone up. And I would agree that this is
not something the staff or the administration team at the high school
thinks is in the best interest of our students.
We have had to look at different methods for supplying the students
with the help they need, offering programming that reach more student
needs and at the same time reducing overall costs for the
district. We have provided tutoring for students out of
study hall, provided assistance programs for the OGT, given training to
staff, and developed programs to increase effectiveness of our
educational efforts. Staff members are available before school
and after school to provide any student who desires assistance the
ability to gain access to it.
We have used the one call system to notify parents of students who are
failing classes that these benefits are available. Assistance is
available from 7:15 to 7:45 and 2:50 to 3:20 every day in room
110. Other specific assistance is available to students as well,
from core subject teachers. More funds designated specifically
for remediation of students is also being isolated for more assistance
coming in the near future.
Overall, there are many great things happening to provide a quality
education for our students here at Greenville. Thoughtful
consideration is continually being given to how to make adjustments
that will continue to reduce costs, provide programming that meets the
needs of today’s student and develops opportunities for our communities
growth of a productive and knowledgeable labor force.
I hope this information was helpful in being able to answer community
members concerns as they are presented. I am willing to meet with
anyone who would like to discuss these aspects further. We
consider our current model and what changes will impact learning the
most significantly each year at this time. Let me know if there
are other questions that I could provide details to for a better
understanding of our educational development.
Sincerely,
Chris Mortensen
Principal
Greenville High School
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