L&T Publisher Earl Watt
So far the USD No. 480 School Board has met several times in the month of January to address concerns that were initially exposed when head football coach Bryan Luetters stepped down because of the adjustments in pay that adversely affected his assistants.
The public became aware of how much of a challenge the district has with trying to find certified instructors, and in addition to that, how interim instructors who are trying to fill the gaps have been compensated.
A little research has shown this problem is being experienced across Kansas and the nation.
When Luetters shared how first-year teacher pay was increased a year ago but interim teachers were left at their lower rates, plus with adjustments to supplemental contracts, his assistants could no longer afford to coach in the Liberal school district, and with the way interims would be handled moving forward, there was no way he could produce a dedicated and successful coaching team.
His resignation sparked a whirlwind of public support for the coaches and the interim teachers, and the School Board sought to better understand the issue and how the gap between pay happened.
At a meeting with the educators and administrators, board members discovered that two years ago when first-year teacher pay increased from around $44,000 to $50,000, interim pay did not change, just as Luetters said.
The board agreed to return interim pay to the same percentage of a first-year teacher pay as it was before the raise for certified-only first-year teachers which resulted in about a $5,000 per year increase for interims.
That discussion would not have taken place without an open line of communication between the educators and the board, and in addition to addressing that pressing concern, the board has also been hearing from educators about the class schedule at Liberal High School.
While many have been for and against the FlexMod schedule currently in place, there has been little discussion involving the educators and the board members about how the system has been adjusted throughout the years in an effort to address concerns. In addition, the conversations that have taken place in January between the board and the staff have been beneficial to issues beyond the schedule.
While student achievement is lagging, it has been easy to look at the way classes are scheduled and question if that is why tests scores are low.
And it is not a bad question to ask.
But additional information has come to light during those meetings which indicated a much deeper issue than classroom schedule options.
According to math teacher Mrs. Bremenkamp, the students who begin their high school careers are nowhere ready for high school classes.
She said that she estimated only 15 percent of those starting to take classes at LHS are ready for high school math benchmarks. That means 85 percent are not.
Other teachers from English and science agreed.
As Bremenkamp stated, the schedule doesn’t matter when students are not ready to learn the concepts they are going to be taught.
Not only that, but LHS Principal Ashley Kappelmann stated that some students coming from other nations stop receiving an education in the sixth grade, and when they come here they are placed as freshmen.
How can we be asking our educators about achievement when they are not given students ready to learn the concepts they are expected to teach?
Several educators have stated that many students cannot read beyond a third grade level, and yet these students are in the high school.
Board Member Sarah Thompson works at Seward County Community College, and she said students from LHS going to SCCC are not prepared.
How could they be when they were never prepared for high school?
It won’t be surprising to find out students aren’t ready for middle school, either.
How are we allowing students to pass through the system who cannot read at grade level much less do math or science?
These concerns, which are well known by the classroom educators and building administrators, have been neglected at the upper levels and also not passed on to the board.
Educators are trying their best, I’m sure, but how do you teach advanced algebraic equations when students can’t do simple multiplication? How do you teach advanced scientific vocabulary when students can’t read a fourth-grade book?
The concept of social promotion is an abject failure. Putting students in grades by age rather than by academic ability and advancing them to the next grade even when they are not ready for it, and then asking the high school educators why test grades are low is simply a complete breakdown of the system.
We would not be aware of these foundational problems if not for the willingness of the School Board to talk directly to the educators. We would not be aware of any of this if Luetters hadn’t been willing to sacrifice his job for others.
The School Board has said they want to continue a dialogue with educators about the schedule and how classes are conducted at LHS, and that is a positive development. But Bremenkamp was right when she said no schedule can solve the lack of knowledge the students have before starting at LHS.
Now that the Board is in contact with the classroom educators, it would be good to extend that conversation to the challenges facing them that involve students not ready for the classes they are required to take.
Perhaps they can review the policies that are leading to grade advancement regardless of academic ability. Solve that problem, and I bet the schedule concerns at the high school will become irrelevant.
My question is what is the school board doing to ensure our kids are ready for their future…especially when one of them is quoted as saying the kids aren’t ready for SCCC when they graduate… and they have been observing this for more than few years.