By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff

I was in high school again Monday, except this time I got to skip out of my classes early and wander around the school.

I’m writing a story about Central High School overcrowding and spent the day at the school interviewing students and teachers and seeing firsthand the challenges that they face in an overcrowded school.

 

I had been told time and time again that passing periods at Central were tight, particularly at the first bell when 2,000 students converge on the halls. They weren’t kidding.

The student I was following walked slowly through halls so I could keep up, but really, it’s as if you’re one little fish in a river rushing toward the ocean. There’s no slowing down, no turning back. Unless you charge through, and take a few elbows, you’ll never get to where you’re going on time.

I grew up in a small town and the fact that Central is a third of the size of my hometown is astonishing to me. How do they get extra help? How do they get from their locker and to class on time? How do they find their friends in the crowd?

It’s probably like anything else. Like when I moved here and it seemed big. You figure out the routes to work, where the grocery store is, a friend’s house and eventually the place that seems so big is not so scary.

Kudos to the new freshmen who have found their way, have figured out how to succeed and haven’t let things like tight halls get to them. But to the kids that still feel overwhelmed and lost in the crowd, I hope that someone else in the crowd, a teacher, an administrator, someone who simple notices, pulls them out of the current and makes them feel like they’re not so alone.

High school is a tough place to feel lost.

By Barbara Soderlin

Here in South Dakota we don’t hear a whole lot of the debate over whether schools should be teaching evolution. But I still found this story fascinating, as it descrbes the fine line a Florida teacher had to walk when confronted with how to teach evolution to his biology classes full of students raised in an Evangelical tradition where the Bible is to be taken literally and the idea of evolution is “hostile to their faith.”

Ultimately the teacher’s point wasn’t that the kids had to believe evolution happened, but they did have to be able to explain and understand it.

By Barbara Soderlin

A story in Education Week talks about how New Hampshire is reinvigorating its high schools by including work opportunities as part of the classroom experience, to help students relate what they learn in school to their future careers.

I wondered whether South Dakota had anything similar, and found the following on our Department of Education Web site. I don’t really ever hear conversation about this, though. When I was covering education in Nebraska a few years ago, it seemed like every school district was thinking about it. In Rapid City, it seems like schools don’t have the space, staff or resources to do what experts agree is necessary, like provide time for students to get extra help from their teachers, time for teachers to work together and plan integrated lessons, or the work load for guidance counselors to be able to work with each student to help him or her plan for a career and post-secondary education. What can we do to make it right?

Here’s what our state wants:

By Barbara Soderlin

Two of the most-commented stories on today’s Journal Web site involve schools and violence: the one about the lockdown that happened when a man was seen (probably legally) carrying a rifle, and then the story about how the boy who was paralyzed in a fight last week was found to have started the fight.

I’m not sure there’s a connection here between the two stories, but if there is, maybe it’s the age-old story of disaffected teenagers. We’re afraid of guns because of the angry boys who shot their classmates at Columbine. Kids plan fights after school, and other kids show up to watch, because they have nowhere else to be. No one expects them home, they’re not busy with homework, they’re not in an activity after school, or they don’t have a job to head to.

It makes me sad that between parents and teachers and the rest of the community, there can’t be some more successful way to reach out to kids and get them involved in something that will be useful to their minds and bodies.

Suggestions?

By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff

I’m halfway through Jodi Piccoult’s book called 19 minutes, a frightening, emotional, multi-perspective account of a school shooting. Since I started reading, I’ve paid more attention to the local security measures at the district I cover.

Almost all of the schools I go into, including Rapid City, require name tags for visitors, a sign-sheet and locked doors. In other places around the country, they require the above and then have taken it a step further - cameras, metal detectors, no backpacks in classrooms. 
And then I came across this article in Education Week about a Texas District that now allows some of its 50 staff members to carry their own guns in the school.

One of the mothers that has three children going to school in the district is upset that the community didn’t have a chance for input (the decision was made quietly during a public meeting), and more so that her children would be around guns every day.

The superintendent says that every employee who wants to carry a weapon first must be approved by the school board “based on his or her personality and reaction to a crisis.”

Really? How do the board members know how a particular teacher might respond in a crisis situation? And what kind of personality test might a teacher or staff member pass in order to be armed in the halls of a school? That’s worrisome.

One good thing the superintendent did say is that in addition to training required for a state concealed-weapons license, they also must be trained to handle crisis-intervention and hostage situations.

Still, if I was a community member in this district, I would be wondering how a decision like this got made without anyone knowing (where is the newspaper on this one?)

This very well might have been the best decision for this district - it sits off the highway and is 30 minutes from the sheriff’s department. The staff would be trained for what to do in a hostile situation and lives could be saved, as Gov. Rick Perry, says in the article. He could be right.

Or, he could be wrong. What if one of the guns falls into the wrong hands - a troubled teen seeking revenge or a sneaky fifth-grader who is curious about holding a gun? Or maybe someone does come in off the street and there is an exchange of gunfire and more people get shot?

The point is that parents never got to ask these questions, never got to weigh the pros and cons, never got to talk to their kids about how they might feel if their science teacher has a gun tucked behind his suit jacket.

Bringing weapons into a school, for any reason, warrants discussion and input from the parents, period.

 

By Barbara Soderlin

This is the first year I’m a homeowner on Halloween. (No, that’s not my costume, although I could tape mortgage payments to my shirt and go as the housing crisis.) But it’s the first year since I’ve been an adult that I haven’t been living in an apartment, sitting there on Halloween, in costume, waiting with a giant bowl of Snickers bars for children to ring the bell, then eating all the candy myself because children don’t like to trick-or-treat at apartment complexes. Maybe it’s too scary, or too depressing, or they don’t think people in apartments have good candy. So I was hoping that a few carved pumpkins on my porch would bring by lots of ghosts and goblins.

Then I saw this in our paper:

City Wide Safe Halloween Carnival Committee begins planning process
RAPID CITY — The City Wide Safe Halloween Carnival Committee will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Room 102 at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.
The meeting marks the beginning of what the committee calls its “Seven Week Scramble” to prepare for the Oct. 31 carnival, an event for local children. Meetings will be held weekly until the final week before the carnival, when meetings are held nightly to prepare for the event.
The carnival takes place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Halloween night and typically draws from 15,000 to 18,000 young people. It provides safe treats, games, prizes, a cake walk, an apple dunk and a haunted house. Approximately $8,500 is needed to run the carnival.
To obtain further information about the carnival or to make a monetary donation, contact Sandi Moss at 341-0442.

OK, that sounds pretty fun, and it’s cool that there are so many parents who work hard to put on a fun night for kids. But does this mean that every kid in town will be at the Civic Center? Who will trick-or-treat at my house? I know lots of communities around the country do this now. Some do it to keep kids “safe” from those supposed scary neighbors who put razor blades in apples and candy. Some have events at churches where you’re not allowed to wear scary costumes. (Even though some of the scariest stories I heard as a kid come from the Bible. Crucifixion? A plague of locusts?)

I find it sort of sad that we are so scared of, or out-of-touch wtih, our neighbors that we trick-or-treat at the civic center, and sell Girl Scout cookies at mom’s office. On Halloween, my light will be on if anyone wants to trick or treat. I don’t want to have to eat all that candy myself.

Yeah right.

By Barbara Soderlin

I loved this piece this morning that points out how the children of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John McCain all go (or went) to private school, while Sarah Palin’s kids all went to public school. The writer, a Democrat and a supporter of public schools, says,

Let us not even touch the term “community organizer,” so buffeted about, by both sides, like a balloon at a rock concert. Let us just say that if Mr. and Mrs. Obama — a dynamic, Harvard-educated couple — had chosen public over private school, they could have lifted up not just their one local public school, but a family of schools. First, given the social pressure (or the social persuasion of wanting to belong to the cool club), more educated, affluent families would tip back into the public school fold. And second, the presence of educated type-A parents with too much time on their hands ensures that schools are held, daily, to high standards.

But the significance of educated families opting in to their local public schools goes deeper than that. Research done by Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, indicates that poor children benefit hugely by mixing, daily, with middle-class children (particularly those from families who value education). Conversely, as long as the deleterious effects of poverty, like rampant absenteeism and serious health issues, do not overwhelm the school culture, middle-class children suffer no ill effects.

It makes me wonder if educated, well-off parents can be criticized for wanting the most challenging and competitive school environment for their children. Or whether they are responsible, through some social contract, for sending their children to mingle with children from poorer families. Of course it would be nice, but should they feel guilty about it? I assume the Obamas paid their property taxes that would support the Chicago Public Schools. Should their daughters not get the best education their parents can afford?

That debate occasinally pops up locally on Rapid Reply, with sports fans, especially, criticizing St. Thomas More for being the school for rich, snobby kids. It’s not exactly the same, though — the schools these politicians send their kids to cost more in annual tuition than a new car. An enterprising student or parent could earn the STM tuition of $4,200 a year with a part-time job working weekends at the mall, so I don’t really buy the argument that it’s only for rich kids. I think it’s for rich kids and kids whose families value the education and are willing and able to work extra or go without some things to pay for it.

I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate here. The concept of public education to me is the most important thing our country can offer (alongside the first amendment!). It’s pretty disgusting to me, actually, that some families can avoid the whole debate just by writing a check to a private school or moving to an exclusive neighborhood with an exclusive public school, even though my own family has done the same, and I’ve benefitted.

Of course, Obama is trying to do something about education, on a national level. Here’s more on that:

This story describes Obama’s plans for education reform, which draw heavily on his experiences working toward school reform in Chicago, notorious for its troubled and segregated school system.

According to the story,

In Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday, Mr. Obama used his education proposals to draw a contrast with Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent, and to insist to voters that he, more than his rival, would change the way Washington works.

Were he to become president, Mr. Obama would retain the emphasis on the high standards and accountability of President Bush’s education law, No Child Left Behind. But he would rewrite the federal law to offer more help to high-need schools, especially by training thousands of new teachers to serve in them, his campaign said. He would also expand early childhood education, which he believes gets more bang for the buck than remedial classes for older students.

By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff

I’ve been following the closure of Lakota Christian Academy in town and then the subsequent opening of Living Hope Academy in its place. The new school is smaller, with fewer enrolled students because of space issues, but it is still focused on the same things says director George Nalley: an education wrapped around healing and inclusion.

With Central bursting at the seams, and Stevens not far behind, it makes me wonder if more small, private academies like this are on the horizon in this community.

Nalley said the small, Christian atmosphere is the perfect place for some students, particular Native American students, who have fallen through the cracks in the public school system.

It brings me back to the question that gets asked a lot in education - what exactly should a school be offering? Whose responsibility is it to provide counseling, prayer, health services? The school? The parents? The community? The church? I’m not sure the answer is black and white.

As I talked with Dr. Pete Wharton last week about the issue of what a community expects schools to offer and at what price - he brought up a good point - sometimes it’s in the school’s and the student’s best interest to be able to offer more than just an education.

What should the school do when a child is not paying attention, missing class, misbehaving, and it becomes known that he/she has several abscessed teeth? What if the district made it possible for the student to see a dentist, get the teeth taken care of, and the student then makes a 180 degree turn in learning, paying attention and behavior?

That’s a true story. And it happened right here in Rapid City.

Let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

By Barbara Soderlin

If you’re going to college this fall, chances are you took out student loans to help pay the bills. This story offers some good advice about avoiding the pitfalls of loans, whether it’s too much debt, too little debt, a burdensome interest rate or a college that is unreponsive to requests for help with your loans.

For background, advice and years of reporting about student loans, the Times also offers this helpful page.

By Barbara Soderlin

Kayla wrote this story a few days ago about the Rapid City school district’s new Web site, at www.rcas.org, where teachers and schools will be able to update their own home pages and blogs about school events, classroom homework and anything else that might interest a school community.

The site looks professional — if anything, it’s a little too formal and corporate – and I think it will be better organized, but it still must be in the beginning stages because it seems like there are some things missing.

Here’s what looks cool and useful so far: Video of school board meetings for parents who want to be involved but can’t attend. A map of the board members’ districts so I can tell who my representative is. A line-item budget in the agenda for upcoming school board meetings, so I can see what they spent on what ($208.78 at Party America?). Daily announcements from the high school, so parents can see what’s for lunch and  when deadlines are for things like ACT prep classes. The annual school report card (though it needs to be retooled from this hard-to-read PowerPoint presentation.)

Here are some suggestions for what could improve: A district calendar that’s in chronological order. Individual e-mail addresses for each board member, so I don’t have to e-mail the entire group when I want to reach just one. Remember that parents and the public will use the site, too, so leave out the educationese and the abbreviations (BLT? TCAP?)

It also seems like the individual schools haven’t really gotten up to speed on the whole posting thing yet. Some schools had very few activities or information listed. I know school just started, but one didn’t even have a phone number up.

These are just some initial impressions. We’ve been doing the Web thing for several years and are still finding ways to improve, and we reporters know it’s not easy to adjust your workload to include, oh yeah, the Web, on top of the rest of your job. Overall I think it’s awesome that the district is trying to provide more information and more interaction between the community and the schools. Hopefully it will remain a priority.

What features would you like to see on the RCAS Web site? What do you like about it already?