Philosophical Differences....

Here are the main philosophical questions that this community needs to address in order to find unity and be able to repair the damage that has been done....

1. Do we believe in discipline and consequences for inappropriate behavior? (If so, we need to hire administrators who also believe that, not people who enable and excuse behaviors and feel that discipline is primarily punitive.)

2. Do we believe that social development of students is as important, if not more important, than academic development? (If so, we need to stop "moving kids" based on test scores and find ways to provide what kids need where they are and help nourish and support their interpersonal relations.)

[Things that make you go hmmmm...: Why force the academies on high school kids because "the small group of student with the same teachers for four years is best" when at the elementary they are dividing by ability? Which group do you think could better handle the separation from their friends? The 7 year old, or the 17 year old?]

3. Do we believe elementary kids should have PE every day? Obesity and childhood diabetes are on the rise, physical activity helps with ADHD and other attention issues, students think better when they have had physical exercise, there are statistical correlations between physical activity and student achievement, etc.... (If so, maybe we should have full time PE teachers in each elementary school building rather than TOSAs at the district office.)

4. Do we believe every student should have MUSIC? (If so, maybe we should have full time MUSIC teachers in every elementary school building.)

[Things that make you go hmmmmm.....: I have heard that there are like 14 teachers on the TOSA list, if you traded 10 of them for PE and Music specialists you would still have 4 to invent programs and run programs that were invented to give them jobs. Didn't there just used to be two? There were two who ran the testing and were the Math and Language Arts specialists at the DO and did an exceptional job, why aren't they there any more??? Maybe they weren't in favor any more, or others who stood out more in their allegiance to Mr. Robinson usurped them?]

5. Do we believe in "advanced" classes? (If so, we need administration that does too, not people who say, "if it's good enough for one student, every student should have to take it.")

6. Do we believe that disruptive students should be removed from classrooms so that the rest of the students can learn and the teacher doesn't have to spend most of their time managing behavior rather than teaching? (If so, we need administration that believes in alternative programs and we need to return some here.)

7. Do we believe that LHS is just a basic lower-level school designed to feed kids to LBCC as soon as possible and only offer lower level classes and let LBCC teach the upper-level stuff no matter how old the kid is? (If so, we need to schedule enough advanced classes that we can accommodate our students needs at the upper-level and we need to have students take courses from LHS teachers until they are eligible to graduate, and have them go to LBCC for the continuing ed offered afterwards.)

[Things that make you go hmmmm...: According to some of the LBCC teachers the LHS kids do not have the study skills, the academic skills, nor the social skills to truly make it in college...shouldn't we make sure they are ready at LHS before we get a really bad reputation?]

8. Do we believe in quality teaching? (If so, we need administrators who know how to evaluate, not intimidate and can evaluate people based on their actual teaching ability rather than their support of administration.)

9. Do we believe kids should be able to get the classes they need? (If so, we need someone who knows how to create master schedules to do it, not people who schedule required classes against each other so students have to choose one subject over another and only offer one section of needed classes in an entire trimester. Apparently, current administration relies to heavily on the computer program to do it and they set the schedule with the lowest percentage of good matches in the history of LHS scheduling.)

10. Do we believe that students need to be in small focused groups with the same teachers so that they can build a strong academic foundation? (If so, we need to bring back freshman Core.)

(Things that make you go hmmmm...: Do the academies still "exist"? I mean the names are still there, but students take any classes they want, administration has directed all teachers to coordinate the curriculum so there are no differences across academies, all students will have the same requirements, Mr. Finch makes all the decisions... only in dress and behavior (cliques) do we really have them any more, and those are the two most damaging aspects of the academies.)

11. Do we believe in our kids? (If so, we need to get into the buildings to support our schools... have you volunteered lately?)

12. Do we believe in this community? (If so, we need to address the philosophical differences and fix the problem immediately.)