A glimmer of hope?

Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had our first period serenaded with the voice of Russ Thompson, District 7 Principal Leader, on the PA. He was stern and serious. He announced an apparent new set of policies for the new high school. Chronic tardiness will be result in detention. Defiance and threats of violence will be met with suspension and possibly expulsion. Wow!! That day transpired with a train of kids being sent to a room in the E building for detention assignments. Thompson mentioned over the PA how disturbed he was at the reports of violent incidents and defiance on the campus. I’m holding my breath with deeply curious anticipation at what will result in these next three weeks before the holiday recess. Could it be a genuine shake-up? Or will Beaudry Ave. step in and destroy any hope of improvement?

 Russ Thompson was principal at Gardena High School years ago. We have one former teacher at the new school who was at Gardena during that time. He credits Thompson with cleaning up the place. He says that Thompson was strict and fair, dealing out disciplinary consequences when they were needed. The district didn’t like the high suspension rates at Gardena. According to this eye-witness teacher, they pushed him out of the principal job. According to this teacher witness, the place deteriorated almost immediately.

 At our Tuesday fix-the-teacher “professional” development session, our “Yolie Flores” small school principal announced that the “site coordinator” at this new school would now be designated as the Principal for the entire school so that more decisions could be made at his level. It’s just humorous to see the Yolie Flores small school idea gradually break down due its inherent absurdities. Attendance has been a mess. It is still a mess. Now, periodic assessments have become a nightmare to try to administer. Next year I predict that the new school will be a comprehensive high school similar to others in the area.

 Our small school principal also announced that the entire campus would set up a “time-out” room in the cafeteria to handle the kids who can’t handle class. FINALLY, after almost three months of bedlam, the administration at this place is getting the message. They are actually seeing the wisdom that lies behind the set-up of comprehensive high schools throughout Southern California. This should have been done back in August. A time-out room, a single top principal, enforcement of rules rather than “counseling” and “paper trails” – things could have been so much different, but that would have run against the prevailing mentality of Beaudry Ave. which believes that the problem is the teacher.

 Russ Thompson appears to be a man who understands what the problem is. I wonder if anyone can even imagine our former principal at HPHS who is now a glorified “Principal Leader” in Local District 5 doing anything like this? I certainly cannot. I’ll never forget the School Site Council meeting in which he turned to me and said, “Well, you make it sound like it’s the students [fault].” DUH!! Get a clue Mr. UCLA grad. But will this announced crack down at the new high school turn out to be a case of too little, too late?  Time will tell. Stay tuned folks. 

 

Comments

[Mr_JavaGeek]

It looks like it is all coming to a head. The only problem with the wise pundits who make education policy is a total lack of experience and vision problem due to a propensity to practice a yoga position that allows their cephalothorax to be permanently embedded in their lower duodenum.

[Former Fremont teacher]

This was all in the plan as was pushing out the original design team. We did not want the site director to become the principal. You can't trust Thompson- really you can't. Watch yourself

[P.R. Keller]

I'm so sick of the chaos, and inertia. I'm going nuts with kids showing off their flagrant flouting of rules and disregard for behavioral limits. Today was not much improvement. All that seems to be accomplished with the new tardy policy is that kids are out of the halls and stairwells and inside the classrooms where they are free to create havoc there.

[Former Fremont teacher]

Similar to one of my periods at my school- the kid already failed my class once and are showing the same behaviors.