Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Letter to the Editor in Anchorage. adn.com



Emmonak School, rife with issues, lacks the support to solve them

I am a teacher in Emmonak, and I am bothered by the lack of support by the Lower Yukon School District administrative office and Lower Yukon Regional School Board in the areas of discipline, maintenance and high staff turnover.

Discipline: Kids yell profanities, run around the room and even throw chairs at times. The district office makes light of it. I got hit with two chairs but kept a young child from getting hit.

High turnover of staff: Emmonak School has had seven principals in 10 years and next year will bring principal No. 8. An extremely high turnover of teaching staff is also occurring. I am amazed that they encourage the principal and staff to leave. A staff revolving-door policy hurts students! I see the LYSD almost intentionally encouraging this high turnover. Principals and teachers who stay give schools stability and grow the academic and behavioral programs. Stable quality staffing benefits all students.

Maintenance: Our Emmonak Regional School Board member should be the one making the case for Emmonak maintenance! There are some unsafe conditions at Emmonak. The district board member should represent the interests of Emmonak School and the community to the board.

-- Richard Brisco

Emmonak
adn.com, comments, letters, 4/28/08

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Letter to editor:

Good for you, Rich, for having the _________ to stand up and tell it like it is. You'll leave them with something to think about and if they are smart, they'll make some positive changes for the future of their children.
Anybody can sit by and watch. Takes intelligent, caring people to start a dialog that eventually makes the changes.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if any of the others that have left have sent a letter to the editor, if not it is high time someone did and I am very glad it was you, Children only can learn what we teach them, and will grow but not without a good education and strong leaders around them.