60 Years Are Too Many: What's Going On?

     19 September 2026

    The first week the principal celebrated our incomprehensible leap from an orange rating to green---skipping yellow. There is  A Lot to that story, today we're focusing on how the distrcit seems to feel about our building.

     When I was hired in December of 2024, the school had a yellow rating, on its way to green, after struggling in orange a few years. Somewhere in there, maybe 2023, the new principal arrived. So I walked into a school that was under the district watch, but only slightly. Which is what YELLOW means.

    By Augst of 2025 when I attended my first faculty meeting, the biulding had somehow crashed back to orange. This was bewildering to those around me, and there was a lot of talk about the district "having it in" for the building, and "moving the goal posts".  I cannot speak to the truth of any of that, only that it was overhead.

      The theatre, gym and film class were all scheduled for large, expensive Mill Levy renovations in 2026, so none of what was happening with the rating and the gossip matched the money that was on the horizon. Why would you stomp a school that is getting new stuff --new stuff the voters approved, mind you.

        The core teacher and our AP's busted their asses last year to get us out of orange. They are not in the building this year to receive accolades, as they have moved on. AP's do that, if you're an AP you want to be a principal someday. However, because they did all the work with the teachers, the principal cannot answer critical questions posed by the distrct regarding how  it was accomplished. 

     That and the backhanded email received from the superintendent, which was essentially "Well, you did it but I have no idea how and we'll see if you can maintain the rating which I doubt."

      Now you're caught up.

      Week Five we receive an email from the principal stating that our enrollment is under the district prediction.

      My first question is why is the district predicting our numbers? We know what's up, and we could accurately predict a baseline.

      The district predicted 126 more students than enrolled.

       I'd like to see the math and where exactly they thought those kids were coming from.

       So, after celebrating busting ass to get to the green box, the principal will now have to cut at least one teacher and possibly three support positions in week six of the new school year.

        To clairfy, a teacher will no longer have a job on 28 September.

        I've been through spring RIB (Reduction in Building, it's also called Reduction in Force but I tend to say RIP because it can also mean Reduction in People).

         I'm not here to whine that I may be cut. In the first place, they just renovated the theatre after I mounted the first fall show and musical in ten years. However, the schedule is a nightmare and sophomores don't get an elective, so all of my work produced single digit class enrollments. 

        If you're cutting by class size, I'm in line.

        We already cut back to one art teacher last spring, and we're bare bones for CTE and IB. ROTC is in the same hurt that Performing Arts are.

        What you need to do is cut a program.

        The principal at Hinkley told me that. She referred to me as the arm that needed to be chopped off to save the body. 

        Blink. Blink.

        I mounted three full shows, two cabarets, a collage and a showcase my last full year in response to her words. Then I turned around and left of my own accord.

        They no longer have a theatre program. And I left on my own terms.

        Cutting arts and art is never the answer. When you have one kid graduate with their IB diploma, it's probably time to cut the program. When CTE engineering classes are single digits, it's time to make a hard choice.

        A small building can be a strong building---but you have to decide what makes you strong.

        Adding a CP program for kids who are concurrently enrolled in college strains the building, it doesn't strengthen it. You may get more kids enrolled in the building, but they aren't in seats. So your building numers may improve slightly, but you are still "down" students and have done nothing to help IB, CTE, PA  or ROTC. That is another clear step to killing performing arts.

        I get to criticize because none of these choices are on me. I'm just Schleppy the Clown. I'm focused on making sure the kids I have are coached to the moon and back in theatre, and are given the same performance and experience opportunities as a bigger school.

        Scene.