Students, Parents Get To Grade Teachers What To Do With Bad Teachers, How To Help Good Ones, Were Hot Topics At Session To Set District Priorities
She’s a high school senior, and he’s a hospital president. But Melanie Wilson and Ron Schurra have something in common: They both worry about bad teachers.
“Some have been there like 30 years. They were really good when they started, but it’s not quite the same,” said Wilson, student body president at North Central High School.
“Do something about it if they shouldn’t be there anymore,” said Schurra, who runs Holy Family Hospital and has a few bad teacher stories of his own.
The two discussed ways to solve the problem at a brainstorming session Wednesday night for community leaders invited to help Spokane School District 81 set priorities.
Parents and teachers are having similar conversations at schools throughout the district, and public forums are planned for later this winter.
Administrators say they’ll use the input to create a “strategic plan” outlining Spokane’s top education goals for the next three to five school years.
Teachers got plenty of attention at Wednesday night’s gathering at the Central Administration building. Besides weeding out bad teachers, people wanted to make the job better for qualified teachers. They wanted to prevent burnout and beef up training.
“What could be lifted to make their jobs easier?” asked Susan Russell, director of RSVP, a volunteer program for senior citizens.
Overall concerns ranged from recruiting more school volunteers to making playgrounds safer to helping kids meet the new, higher academic standards.
Several of the 20 participants said generating more support from people without children is critical for healthy schools. “There are a lot of people in the community, including retirees, who need to be invited in,” Russell said.
Larry Stanley, chief executive of Empire Bolt and Screw, believes few counselors understand the variety of career choices awaiting students after graduation.
As a result, students don’t get proper direction and often don’t even take relevant electives, Stanley said. “The top kids in the class don’t get enough experience of what’s really out there.”
Tracking students after high school is equally important - at least until they reach the “next set of helping hands,” said Mike McGuire, principal at North Central High School.
“A lot of kids do well in school, but they graduate, have the graduation all-nighter, make 10 trips to the beach, and all of a sudden it’s August and they haven’t filled out that college application,” he said.
School board president Rocco Treppiedi, who has attended several sessions on the district’s new plan, said emerging themes include school security and accountability for students, teachers and parents.
Treppiedi said he expects the new strategic plan to build on the last one, which was created in 1994. Diversity and technology were strong components in that plan.
“Last go-around, people said, `You need computers.’ This time they’re saying, `You need to train teachers to use the computers.’ It’s kind of a refinement.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: TO LEARN MORE For information about upcoming public sessions on the strategic plan, call 353-3690.