kaorder1999
06-12-2008, 07:58 PM
The end of Spruce as we know it?
Administrators briefed trustees a little while ago on their plans to blow up H. Grady Spruce High School.
While the board heard three options for reorg, really only one of those was feasible and would actually shock the system, Superintendent Hinojosa said.
In a nutshell: If you work at Spruce, start looking for a new job. And if you're a student, say hello to your new classmates at Lincoln and Madison.
Click the jump for the details.
This is all coming about because, for the fourth straight year, students at Spruce posted some pretty awful test scores. Under state law, the school has one year to boost scores or face state closure. Superintendent Hinojosa is enough of a realist to see that the types of gains needed to save the school simply aren't going to happen.
So, here's the plan that administrators appeared to be leaning toward in an attempt to preempt a state shutdown:
1. All administrative staff will be removed from the school.
2. All teachers will be removed, but they will be allowed to reapply for their old jobs. However, no more than 25 percent of them will be hired back. That would put 89 of the school's 119 teachers on the street. And the 30 slots reserved for re-hires? They wold be filled "based on performance." Now, nobody said this, but I interpreted that to mean re-hires would be based on CEI's.
3. All students in grades 10 and 11 would be bused to Lincoln and Madison high schools. Only incoming freshman and next year's senior class would remain at Spruce. (This would effectively kill the school's athletic programs, noted trustee Ron Price.)
4. Each year, as more freshman entered, Spruce would add new grades until it was once again a 9-12 high school.
5. School improvements would be built around the on-going high school reform efforts already underway at all campuses.
If implemented, I believe that this would be the most radical reorganization of a school that the district has ever undertaken. It certainly beats the recent "reconstitutions" by a mile.
"This [option] is the best chance of success if H. Grady Spruce is going to survive past the summer of 2009," Hinojosa said.
Trustees were briefed on two other options, neither of them appeared to be likely.
One would be to find a business or school management company to take over the operation of the school. Just as soon as that idea was presented, Hinojosa knocked it down, stating that time is too short to find a management company by the end of August.
The other option includes all elements of the first option, including the staff firings, but keeps all students at Spruce.
This option is, politically, the "safest" Hinojosa said, but added that it's also the least likely to result any meaningful improvements -- and the whole point of the change is do something radical.
"We have an obligation to our students to take immediate action," said administrator Donna Michaeux.
The district is holding a community meeting about the changes Tuesday night, in the school's auditorium beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Administrators briefed trustees a little while ago on their plans to blow up H. Grady Spruce High School.
While the board heard three options for reorg, really only one of those was feasible and would actually shock the system, Superintendent Hinojosa said.
In a nutshell: If you work at Spruce, start looking for a new job. And if you're a student, say hello to your new classmates at Lincoln and Madison.
Click the jump for the details.
This is all coming about because, for the fourth straight year, students at Spruce posted some pretty awful test scores. Under state law, the school has one year to boost scores or face state closure. Superintendent Hinojosa is enough of a realist to see that the types of gains needed to save the school simply aren't going to happen.
So, here's the plan that administrators appeared to be leaning toward in an attempt to preempt a state shutdown:
1. All administrative staff will be removed from the school.
2. All teachers will be removed, but they will be allowed to reapply for their old jobs. However, no more than 25 percent of them will be hired back. That would put 89 of the school's 119 teachers on the street. And the 30 slots reserved for re-hires? They wold be filled "based on performance." Now, nobody said this, but I interpreted that to mean re-hires would be based on CEI's.
3. All students in grades 10 and 11 would be bused to Lincoln and Madison high schools. Only incoming freshman and next year's senior class would remain at Spruce. (This would effectively kill the school's athletic programs, noted trustee Ron Price.)
4. Each year, as more freshman entered, Spruce would add new grades until it was once again a 9-12 high school.
5. School improvements would be built around the on-going high school reform efforts already underway at all campuses.
If implemented, I believe that this would be the most radical reorganization of a school that the district has ever undertaken. It certainly beats the recent "reconstitutions" by a mile.
"This [option] is the best chance of success if H. Grady Spruce is going to survive past the summer of 2009," Hinojosa said.
Trustees were briefed on two other options, neither of them appeared to be likely.
One would be to find a business or school management company to take over the operation of the school. Just as soon as that idea was presented, Hinojosa knocked it down, stating that time is too short to find a management company by the end of August.
The other option includes all elements of the first option, including the staff firings, but keeps all students at Spruce.
This option is, politically, the "safest" Hinojosa said, but added that it's also the least likely to result any meaningful improvements -- and the whole point of the change is do something radical.
"We have an obligation to our students to take immediate action," said administrator Donna Michaeux.
The district is holding a community meeting about the changes Tuesday night, in the school's auditorium beginning at 6:30 p.m.