These videos were shot at the Sunday, March 17, 2013 performance of "In The Heights" at the Vashon Island High School theater, and are also up on my YouTube channel "In The Heights" - Vashon Island High School Drama 2013
So it seems we're going to cut the number of classes *every* student at VHS takes by 20% (from 15 per year (trimester) to 12 (semester)), to remedy the "troublesome gaps in instruction" experienced by some (exactly how many? No one ever said, that I heard) students in the trimester system...
So it seems we're going to cut the number of credits *every* student at VHS needs to graduate by 21% (28.0 credits (currently) to 22.0 credits (class of 2017 and beyond)), but that doesn't matter because "..college admissions offices take into account class schedules.." -- which in the past was specifically said to work to VHS students' *advantage* under the trimester system specifically because they had more credits than many competitors from other high schools, but which now works in exactly the *opposite* manner because we want to adopt the semester system, so it's all good...
And of course "...many VHS students, however, voiced concerns about the plan, saying it would give them fewer opportunities to take elective classes and would allow them to earn fewer credits, potentially giving them a disadvantage in college admissions.." but none of that matters, because -- hey! -- they're just kids and what would kids know about taking classes or graduating from a high school or getting into a college and besides the adults are in charge here so who cares what the kids think...
"Their [the VISD SCHEDULE COMMITTEE] recommendation was based on good, solid research of the best practices of high-performing school districts and really answered some of the deepest concerns we had about the current trimester schedule," [Vashon Island School District Superintendent Michael] Soltman said in an interview.
Let's list some buzz phrases: "good, solid research" "best practices" "high-performing school districts" "really answered" "deepest concerns".
In how many Executive Summaries of how many school district planning announcements could you place those exact same phrases and still convey absolutely no real information? Just about any Executive Summary written by any school district bureaucracy on this planet. You could replace the words "the current trimester schedule" with anything ("bus ridership week" "standardized testing" "tofu tacos at lunch") and still say nothing meaningful.
But remember: now we can acheive "efficiencies and flexibility" in "aligning the schedules at McMurray Middle School and Vashon High school" (which, remember, is the actual *stated* purpose of all this) under the cover of chasing the "best practices of high-performing school districts" -- which we'll be chasing in a different direction the next time State or National teaching and testing "standards" change.
Speaking of educational "standards", remind me again how well VISD students are doing on the WASL? Oh, wait...
This started out as a letter to the editor that I submitted to the Beachcomber on Friday, March 22. The Beachcomber wouldn't publish it because it was too long. I couldn't shorten it; in fact I probably had more to say on this topic than what I first wrote. I've contined to edit and expand upon what I first wrote; a timestamp for the latest revision is down at the very bottom.
The Vashon Island School District is proposing to switch back to a two semester, six-class-per-semester (12 classes per student per year) schedule from the current three trimester, five-class-per-trimester (15 classes per student per year) schedule that's been in place at Vashon Island High School since the late 1990's.
In doing so the Vashon Island School District will:
1) cut the classes per student, per year from 15 (trimester) to 12 (semester);
2) cut the total credits required for graduation from Vashon Island High School from 28.0 (currently) to 22.0 (class of 2017 and beyond); and
3) cut the hours in class per student, per year, by 15 hours.
These cuts in the educational program are to achieve the stated administrative goal of aligning the schedules at McMurray Middle School and Vashon High school, all to achieve (I have been told) "efficiencies and flexibility".
Personally I think this change approaches the unconscionable: is the purpose of the Vashon Island School District to streamline its administrative processes, or to educate kids?
If you can point me to a definitive source that demonstrates these points to be factually incorrect, please email me with a link. I don't mean a difference of opinion, which is quite expectable, and I'm not referring to some mitigating circumstance that supposedly will make this all better.
Am I factually wrong in what I'm saying here?
Anyway, onward...
"It's hard to know where to begin in analyzing the Beachcomber's March 20, 2013 article "Panel proposes new schedule at VHS". My executive summary: the Vashon Island School District seems to have embarked on significant educational changes without the extended involvement of anyone but those directly engaged in the process.
I have read the online document "VISD SCHEDULE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS MARCH 1, 2013". Note the date. The recommendation document, at this writing, is twenty-one days old. And how it really became public I don't know.
I've gone back through online School Board minutes; unless you already knew what a "Scheduling Committee" was working on you would have no idea this project was underway.
The stated goal is "To develop a secondary schedule in common to VHS and McM".
That's the goal, and although that same sentence contains verbiage about "effective student learning" and "the attainment of state and national learning goals" those should already be VISD goals so I'd say they're repeated here only for effect.
We're going to align the schedule at McMurray Middle School with the schedule at Vashon Island High School. Or vice versa.
To do this we're going to cut the number of classes a VHS student takes annually from 15 to 12. We're also going to cut the number of credits necessary to graduate from Vashon Island High School from the current 28.0 credits to a proposed 22.0 credits for the class of 2017 and beyond.
This is a significant cut in the educational experience received by every Vashon Island High School student, and I don't see how anyone can reasonably deny that.
Regarding time students actually spend in class the Beachcomber article contains the quote "it's still the same pie ... whether you cut it into eight pieces or twenty".
This is nonsense. Unless you start the school day earlier or end the school day later (we're not, are we?) you're cutting the in-class hours for Vashon Island High School students.
You can only make a pass period between classes so short; right now it's five minutes.
If the school day stays the same length but contains more periods you're spending more time in the hallways between classes, and you're spending less time in class. There's no two ways about that.
(Pop quiz: what's 5 minutes times 180 days in a school year? 900 minutes. Divide that by 60 to get hours. I get 15 more hours spent out in hallways and not in class, per student per school year. But I was an art major, so maybe I'm wrong).
So barely twenty days ago the community at large first learns about these significant cuts to the educational program at Vashon Island High School.
And yet apparently this new program will be adopted this late spring/early summer and initiated next fall, during the same school year when we will have both a new principal at Vashon Island High School, and a brand new high school itself.
My questions: what's the rush, and what's the full effect of this considerable change on actual students and their education?
I could care less about "developing a secondary schedule in common to VHS and McM".
That's an abstract and undefined administrative goal, although I do wonder what that's really all about.
But first, tell me in detail what it's going to do to the education of our kids."
Sun 14 Apr 2013 07:45:33 AM PDT
Winter 2012 - 2013 Vashon Island High School sports and more!
VHS Wrestling @ State, Tacoma Dome, Saturday 02/16/2013
1A Washington State MAT CLASSIC XXV Championships 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
170 lbs - 11 - SHANE ARMSTRONG {VASHON ISLAND}
takes Third Place WIAA 1A at 170 pounds!
195 lbs - 11 - PRESTON MORRIS {VASHON ISLAND}
takes Second Place WIAA 1A at 195 pounds!
1A Washington State MAT CLASSIC XXV Championships 2013 Team Scores:
VASHON ISLAND 17th place (out of 53 schools competing) with 47 points
Fantastic job Shane, Preston, and all the VHS Pirates Wrestlers!
VHS Wrestling @ State, Tacoma Dome, Friday 02/15/2013
1A Washington State MAT CLASSIC XXV Championships 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Team Scores: 12th place - VASHON ISLAND - 29 points
106 lbs - 09 - CHASE WICKMAN {VASHON ISLAND} - L third round
170 lbs - 11 - SHANE ARMSTRONG {VASHON ISLAND} - W third round
- wrestles 11:30 am Saturday
195 lbs - 11 - PRESTON MORRIS {VASHON ISLAND} - W third round
- wrestles 11:50 am Saturday
220 lbs - 12 - ANTHONY SAWYER {VASHON ISLAND} - L Third round
220 lbs - 10 - JOE COLLER {VASHON ISLAND} - L Third round
285 lbs - 11 - LOUIS JOVANOVICH {VASHON ISLAND} - L Second round
Two notes: first, I have no photos of the finals. I'd been sick; I was there for over seven hours as it was, and when the prelims were done I was cooked. Second, I've got the sets identified by time, so if you know roughly when you wrestled, you know what set to look in. I got photos of just about every single prelim match. I think.
New video: the VHS Drumline at Football v Eatonville
The VHS Drumline warms up before Football v Eatonville, 09/21/2012. Not too bad considering it was spur-of-the-moment, and shot hand-held and with the crappy in-camera mic on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
The Holidays happen. And Winter Sports. I finally make in down in daylight in early February. We wonder about the effects of a *really* long homerun. And find the Robert Rock and other memorials are still safe.
You can actually get the sense that there's going to be a building.
The south (on the left) and the north (on the right) foundations for the Study Commons extend away toward the walled-in A building. At the very left is the as-yet undug foundation trench for the diagonal wall that will connect the Theater with the Study Commons.
Looking across the front of the gym. C Building was dead straight ahead. B Building is off in the background. The A building is back off to the far right. The green stuff on the ground is new hydroseeding. In one sense you could say that this is the first part of the new Vashon Island High School to get finished.
This was really the first big deadline: on August 28, 2012, the admin staff and the teachers had to be able to get into the VHS buildings to start getting ready for the upcoming school year. Which meant that the construction perimeter had to be almost completely reset to the configuration that would be permanent through the majority of the construction cycle. Which meant that anything *outside* of that perimeter had to either be finished, or under secure cover. Skanska made it!
The C building was at those piles of gravel off in the background. The B building has had its north end cut off. You can see the temporary gravel walkway out to the Stadium right along the gym.
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