By Grace Shay and Mike Schneider
A popular course offering at Westport’s Staples High School has been cut from the 2009-10 curriculum because of budgetary reasons, a school official announced today.
James D’Amico, Social Studies Department chair, said the elimination of the English 2/U.S. History Honors Collaborative, an interdisciplinary sophomore English and United States history course, was due to what he called a “tough budget season.”
D’Amico said he made the decision with Principal John Dodig and Assistant Principal James Farnen after much discussion. The Board of Finance cut $1.4 million from the Board of Education’s proposed 2009-10 budget on March 18. (See WestportNow March 18, 2009)
“I’m very disappointed that it had to be cut,” said D’Amico of the course affectionately known as “Collab” by students and teachers. The class is currently co-taught by social studies teacher Cathy Schager and English teacher Michael Fulton.
“It’s a good course and Ms. Schager and Mr. Fulton have done a very good job teaching it this year,” D’Amico said.
However, he added, “We have to look at the big picture, especially in a tough budget season like this one. I don’t like having to cut it, but looking at the options, it is one that had to be employed.”
D’Amico said that in the past two years, having two teachers teaching a single course would not have been an issue.
Next year, however, D’Amico said that enrollment is up in all courses without the addition of any teaching positions. Part of Collab’s discontinuation is to achieve the “goal of benefiting the maximum number of students,” he said.
D’Amico said another factor in the decision was that honors English and social studies classes already exist, even though the two courses follow a different curriculum from Collab.
Fulton and Schager were notified of Collab’s discontinuation in a meeting today with D’Amico and English Department Chair Lis Comm during Period 4, said Fulton, who added that he was “very disappointed” in the decision.
The class was designed and created 10 to 15 years ago by former social studies teacher Jackie Whiting, said D’Amico.
Former Collab student Mikey McGovern ’09, who took the class when it was taught by former English teacher John Chiappetta and Whiting in 2007, said that he “learned a lot” during his time in Collab.
“I can’t even explain how much I changed. I found who I was,” he said. “Basically everything I know about learning, I learned in that class.”
McGovern said he is disappointed that Collab will no longer be offered.
“Collab is the embodiment of Staples’ mission statement, and not having the class will severly demote the quality of the school,” he said.
McGovern especially praised the current form of the course.
“Schager and Fulton have taken the class in a new direction,” he said. “Because the class is now more fact and history based,” by cutting the course, “it’s almost like penalizing [Fulton and Schager] for getting better.”
Current Collab student Lauren Hodes ’11 said she was “shocked” when she heard the news.
“I didn’t understand why” the class was cut, she said. “When I found out [the reason] was budget cuts, I thought it was a bad excuse.”
The class is “very rewarding. I feel like other students should be able to get the same experience” next year, Hodes said.
Riley Andrews ’09, who also took Collab in 2007, said that the course helped her learn about “intrinsic motivation.”
“A lot of students fail at it, but [Collab] taught us how to work for ourselves,” she said, adding that classes like Collab make Staples the No. 1 school in Connecticut.
Collab, however, is not the only Social Studies course cut for the 2009-2010 school year.
Sections of the semester elective course Current Issues were cut, as well as the Latin American area study and Women in American History, which didn’t run this year either, D’Amico said.
“It’s absolutely my goal to have Collab run in the future,” said D’Amico. “It’s a great course.”
Too bad. This course is one of the places where teachers not only shine but develop pedagogy that leads other teachers to new heights. The loss to the system is equivalent to a corporation losing its research and development division. The loss is also a signal to teachers that want to push education to acheive more that it isn’t going to happen here.
This is just the beginning. When combined with the predictability of larger class sizes, the result of the cuts will be the end of Staples’ position at the top of the state’s and the nation’s high schools.
Until the Board of Educations makes its decisions in May, nothing has been cut beyond what has been published in the Board’s proposed 2009-2010 budget.
That is what those attending the April 1st RTM Education Committee meeting were told by Board members.
The BOE will act after the full RTM to votes on the budgets at its May meeting.
Many of us on the RTM believe that the BOE can cut spending and find additional financial resources that will protect both class sizes and class offerings, within the parameters set by the Board of Finance.
Plenty of Staples courses taught my children how to prepare for tests. Collab taught them how to learn. It inspired their intellectual curiosity and fostered independent thought and reason. What a sad day for Staples if such a formative educational experience is not available for future students. I’m glad mine have graduated.
As the article indicates, several courses have already been cut in social studies alone. Also, it is my understanding that there will be no new teachers hired for Staples next year while the school population is expected to rise. The increase in class size appears inevitable as a result of the current cuts. I don’t hear of anyone who is betting that the RTM will override the BOE’s acceptance of the BOF’s cuts and your posting seems to confirm this position.