Monday, August 25, 2008

GOOD NEWS!!!

Alright so I gave the random rant about why I was stressed last week. So now I'll provide you with a little more insight and then you'll understand the good news.

So last year we cut 9 teachers at West High School because Denver Public projected our school to be at less than 850 students. Now by October 1 last year, West had 1100 students. So why they projected that is beyond me. Anyway, West High School has been under the magnifying glass for the last few years because our students' CSAP (MEAP for Colorado) scores were terrible and falling and the graduation rate is extremely low. Thus DPS was inquiring to move a charter or alternative school into the building (which means everyone at West loses their jobs and all the students must go elsewhere). So our debate was that the CSAP scores stabilized and the graduation rate was increasing. Plus there is a large population of students attending.

Anyhoo, so as the first day of school (August 18) we had 650 students enrolled at West total. Now for you readers that are used to the suburbs and non-hispanic population, this isn't really that big of a deal for us. For some reason, the population out here decides to enroll their students weeks after the school year starts. I'm not really sure why, but that's just how things are done. Anway, so September 7 is the deadline as far as DPS is concerned. If we reach 850+ students, then our school gets a huge grant that will allow us to hire more teachers. MORE TEACHERS = LESS STUDENTS PER CLASS. If we have below that amount, we would have to lay off 2 more teachers. So you can all probably guess what the good news is... As of 5 minutes ago we have 848 students enrolled, hurray!!! Maybe my classes can be cut-down to below 30???

1 comment:

Alecia said...

So, honestly, how do you find enough time to blog while you are teaching? I have all ready gotten behind and all I have had is new teacher orientation! Anyway, blog is posted, check it out. :) Glad to hear things are looking up for you!