Facility plan continues with look at high school

DWD, as a teacher, I have so many issues with you generalizing teachers as "overpaid, under worked and underperforming." And, no, its not because it "hits close to home". Its because, in most cases, its simply not true. You, sir, are king of the generalizations. All Democrats are bad. All city projects are wasteful. All teachers are lazy. An argument based on blatant careless generalization is not a legitimate argument at all, and any intelligent person knows to dismiss it.

That being said, I'd like to see an argument about today's teachers that lays out your proof about what you think you "know" about them. I'd like to see an argument that points out specific problems you have with a few of the improvements listed at the end of the article and what you would do instead (instead of a rant about Democrats, spending, and teachers- who weren't mentioned in the article at all). Finally, I'd like to hear about proposals you actually agree with- if there are any. Frankly, I think you're on this website strictly to find things to complain about and to rile up other readers. Please prove otherwise.

First off, when you say "Thanks to you overpaid, under worked, and under performing educators our taxes keep going up and our kids' test scores keep going down", it definitely sounds like you are speaking to teachers in general. If that was not your intention, then you may want to work on how you're wording things- you never mentioned administrators in your original comment. However, given your history of comments on teachers, it was definitely easy for me to jump to conclusions.

Anyway...

I just don't see, DWD, how you can be so educated on how well Spencer students are prepared for life if you don't attend SHS or have children who do. (Notice I didn't mention standardized test scores, which present their own set of interpretation problems). It follows that I'm not sure how you know so much about the teachers if you/your children haven't experienced any of them. I'm genuinely curious. I didn't attend SHS, nor do I now, so I don't profess to know what percentage of teachers present a problem, or what the standard of education is like there. However, you certainly can't justify impeding progress because of student/faculty shortcomings- or because you're worried about your taxes. I do know that my alma mater is considering making it more difficult to graduate, and has the same set of standards it did when I went there. However, it has always been to easy to cheat, which leads to its own set of problems.

I am with you on the larger space just to have more space- I'm not sure how they come up with those numbers. I will say that the new theater/gymnasium/practice area was meant to be a combination of the three, and would serve all three purposes. I do, however, believe in air conditioning. I remember being miserable in part of May, June, August, and September in our school, and I remember most of those days being a complete waste because EVERYONE was miserable. Just because former generations have dealt with it is no reason to continue putting people through it. The school I'm at now has A/C in most of the building and you just don't have that drag on you like we used to for the beginning/end of the school year. Not a necessity, but definitely worth it to my mind.

Those are really your only two items I have anything to say about. The rest of the items on the list seem reasonable, aside from having space to say they have enough space. You ask me to prove where any of those items improve knowledge- they're just not meant to. It's more logistical improvements than curriculum improvements, which is addressed by a completely different committee. Secure entrances, instrument storage, the railing etc. are improvements that I'd say are helpful to the everyday functioning of the school and safety of the students. They may not learn trigonometry from it, but that doesn't make it less important.

I don't see where we should stop improving just because enrollment is declining- that's a sure way to mark this school for a slow, painful death- look at some of the districts surrounding you. The students that still attend should have opportunities kids in larger schools do, and their classmates leaving should not affect the quality of the school they attend. Educational standards do matter, but that's not really the discussion that relates to this article.

"The few days where heat poses a problem, we can certainly put up with it. It is good for us. Some of these students won't have air conditioning where they work, should they stay home when it is hot? "

Why should we? What's the point? And, how is it "good for us"? Sure, we can say we toughed it out, but I don't think we NEED to. Out of many of those items, I feel like this is one that would actually help students learn more on many days at the beginning/end of the school year. Also, I don't understand your logic about work environments. Many of those same students WILL have A/C where they work. Should they not be required to go to school on hot days without it? I just don't see the logic, there.

What I was saying is that a lot of students will not work in air conditioned office buildings. If they don't have A/C on hot days when they are working, is that an excuse to not get their jobs done? Deal with it, it is good for people to learn to suffer a little bit. Most of the world is without air conditioning. If air conditioning is important for learning, how come our country is being left behind?

I think there is a lack of parental involvement here. Two of my three children are far beyond their peers in reading. Why is that? Most likely it is because we are a reading house. They see their father and I reading and we set the example. I don't spend hours supervising their homework or drilling them. We spend time together on fun and learning and we don't have TV.

I'm really not a hovering parent -- my kids have a lot of independence and room to make mistakes, and yet they're very high achievers in school because they got the message that learning is important and fun.

My eldest gets a pass because he has a disability, yet he is achieving in art classes at the school, too.

I think parents expect too much of teachers and don't create a learning centered environment at home.

I personally fail to see how any reasonable person would be against implementing some sort of A/C in the schools, despite the extra cost. They would only need to be used at best for one third of the school year, and regardless of its impact on learning (whether it would help or not-I tend to think it would help teachers and students focus better), there is no reason people entering or using the school buildings should feel a wave of sweltering heat smack them in the face when they walk in. Who cares if people didn't have it before? We used to toil in fields in our backyards if we wanted tomatoes and rutabagas, now we walk into air conditioned supermarkets for them. Arguing that we shouldn't have air conditioning in schools because it costs money is like saying we shouldn't have supermarkets because we don't technically need them for survival.

With any of the other projects, I don't personally have a problem with any of them, as long as they can be proven actually necessary or within monetary limits and those advocating for any specific project show a large amount of support and interest in it, instead of just essentially "winging it" and spending millions of dollars on a facility that is rarely used. Perhaps the thing on the list whose need is most exaggerated I would think is an auxiliary gym. For what? Spencer's Fieldhouse is already one of the largest and nicest in the area, and the activities director has done an excellent job managing athletic schedules insofar as any conflicts go. While I wouldn't be opposed to building one if it proved more than marginally necessary or convenient, the significant cost associated with such leads me (and most others with whom I've talked about this) to think that money would be better spent on other projects or improvements.