Masked because they were on school grounds, from left are Caroline Gao, Alice Morvay and Sachi Wrigley.
Three students at West are worried about the common class schedule for 2021-22 that was announced for West and South Albany high schools last week. They’re so concerned that they launched a petition asking the school board to take another look.
The students asked me to report their concerns and the petition they plan to present to the Greater Albany Public Schools board on June 7. On Monday evening, outside the new front door of West Albany High (which I had trouble finding because it’s at the back of the building), I talked with Sachi Wrigley, who started the petition a week ago, and Alice Morvay and Caroline Gao. Sachi and Alice will be seniors next fall, and Caroline will be a junior.
Students at West, they told me, would prefer to go back to the class schedule in place before the Covid pandemic, with eight class periods a day. They fear that the schedule announced for next year, cutting back to seven periods on three days and featuring a block arrangement of three longer periods Wednesday and four on Thursday, will hamper their opportunities for an education in various ways.
They’d lose an elective, for example, they said. And they fear confusion among some students about the different class lineups on different days.
When it announced the new schedule, the district administration said it would allow students to access classes at either school, so if they could not get a certain class at one campus they could take it at the other. That was one reason for making the schedule the same at both. One petition signer, though, wondered how students would get from one school to the other in the five-minute passing period the schedule provides.
Sachi Wrigley, who organized the petition, says in the petition that students were not consulted on the new schedules. She and her two companions made that point in their chat with me as well. You can find the petition, along with comments by signers, here. As of Monday night it had more than 1,100 signers.
The school district published a statement on the new schedules on its website here.
After a year of having their schooling disrupted, and still being told they must wear masks at school, next year’s high school seniors have one more shot at a more or less normal year. The school board should make sure the schedule they end up with is one that gives them the best possible chance. (hh)
Since when are we supposed to care about what High School kids think? They are fortunate enough to live in a country where free education is a guaranteed right. These children (they are legally children) do have limited whimper-and-moan rights, but until they start paying property taxes, they would do better just to go to class, get excellent grades and move forward. For the entire history of education, students have bemoaned their alleged and imagined woes, yet somehow the world continues to spin.
We better “care what High School kids think.” They’re the next generations leaders!
We should care about these children…that they be taught by competent educators and that they learn. What we do not need is for children to dictate educational policy. Focus on what’s important here…not just the firebrand material the author publishes to ratchet-up clicks on your smartphone.
Giving all “FRANKS” a bad name.
What a gross comment! Period. ….as you “whimper and moan” in your hospice bed.
Riddance
I was under the impression that comments were screened so as to eliminate personal attacks, yet here we are with a commenter wishing evil upon another. Something’s amiss!
Hi Frank! I’m so glad you asked what we high schoolers should think. You see, this schedule will greatly impact our education. The inconsistency of the schedule within one week (some days with 45 minute periods, some with 90 minute periods) will make learning new material very difficult. Plus, with limited passing time between periods, the students who plan to travel to another school to take a class (which is exactly what the schedule is attempting to accommodate for), won’t be able to make it to class on time! That takes away valuable learning time. All of these factors make “[getting] excellent grades” much much more difficult.
Plus, high school is a chance to earn life experience. If you want to see competent adults in the future, maybe giving young adults the chance to practice life skills, such as advocating for ourselves, would be more beneficial than you seem to think! The world may keep spinning, but if making the world a better place to live in doesn’t hurt anyone, why not try?
Sachi Wrigley, You have a couple of interesting viewpoints, let me take exception with a couple others…
long class periods for any course including lab work or time for art or metals, Wood, electronics or Chemistry/physics are by far more efficient. The first part of any class is getting people settled, taking roll, recitation, etc. If you do not have to do that for each period you have just added that much time to LEARNING……… it is a no brainer that those of us who were consulted by the Legislature in years past agreed on. The second thing…if you are worried about not having a standard schedule because you can not handle it….. You should go get a job at Burger King because if you are a Senior, next year will be a University schedule…… which has NOTHING like smooth scheduling, if on the other hand think you will be able to handle a College schedule, you might want to get a leg up on that now… just one more thing…… you sound like you approve of Socialism, educate yourself as to what socialist countries do when they find someone with whom they disagree………… literally MILLIONS of dead protesters thru time…..20 plus million in the Soviet Union, 30plus million just in China…
What comments did she make that conflates to being in favor of Socialism?
If the Albany public schools were “socialist,” we wouldn’t need to form a petition; we would have already gotten a say.
It’s good to see students taking the initiative to speak up for themselves. Too many adults just whine and moan but do nothing to effect change, as if voting for politicians who often don’t serve their interests but have the right letter after their names means being a responsible citizen.
Wasn’t it W.C. Fields that commented regarding children… “They should be seen, not heard??!” What do ya expect now? The current liberal socialist school teaching is that “they” can do as they want & feel they need! What’s needed is a good stern Nun to whip out from her sleeve an oak ruler to rap them on the knuckles.
Hi James! I think it’s important to inform you that we students are trying to accomplish change in as democratic a way as possible. Many methods to bring attention to student voices in an issue that directly impacts us were discussed, but we all agreed that a petition was the best plan. Why? Because it’s professional and it’s what we would do if we were adults in a similar situation. If the Albany public schools were “socialist,” we wouldn’t need to form a petition; we would have already gotten a say. Instead, we’re being taught important life skills that we will need in the near future. Skills like self-advocation, professionalism, and diplomacy. Maybe “a good stern Nun” would silence us, but we sure would be unprepared to be anything but being sheep!
Now, my fellow geezers, do you see why she and students like her — literate, insightful and polite in the face of criticism — deserve to be taken seriously?
Hear, hear
Touché
A little amazed at your comment, you left out the part where the writer is believing in Socialism, having never had the damage that Socialism causes. Maybe you could explain how people are treated in Socialist countries, start with Venezuela shooting people who demonstrated…
The young, including the not-so-young like me are gravitating towards socialism because we’ve seen the results of 40 years of unleashed crony capitalism in America, and we compare our lives with the lives of citizens in other developed countries (that are not socialist, by the way). Why the most powerful and wealthy country on Earth has people going bankrupt because of getting sick? Why are our colleges so expensive? Why are there rich people buying yachts with nested tiny yachts like obscene Russian dolls, while American workers don’t even have paid vacations, or maternity and sick leave like any other country?
By the way, naming that boogeyman Venezuela is getting old and we don’t care about it.
Yimby, It doesn’t surprise me that you are a socialist by virtue of your comments of late, and the fact that you are tired of hearing about socialists murdering people because they disagree with them is no surprise either, If I would have talked about the National Socialist party (NAZI) would that have been better?
Perfectly stated!
Young lady…I think the new term is “sheeple”. Mind your elders, we’ve come a lot further down the path than you & it pains us to watch as you young ‘ins make the same mistakes & repeat the same methods w/o listening to advice. And being that I’m paying a whole bunch in School Taxes I’ll have the final say. It’s been 30 years since my 5 went thru that worthless GAPS system & it’s been a whole lot of tax money. When you start paying, you can then make demands!
I believe the School Board, after blah, blah, blah meeting could not agree an a proposed schedule so they punted and Supt. Goff was given authority to impose to one we have.
That’s how we got here. Many school staff have also been critical. Why the board trusts Goff’s judgement is puzzling. Change will come in July
And the coup d’état will be a very sad day for Albany schools & children IMO…
My goodness…there seems to be quite a bit of negativism among the older crowd (which I am unfortunately associated with) toward high school aged AKA, young adults not knowing anything and to be obedient, and shush up!
These “kids” have had to deal with a ton of change to their lifestyle, and education as we all have, but to revert back to your point they are are needing consistency…and our “older” generation has no idea what their educational experiences have been…so to say they need to sit down, and don’t talk back mentally is ludicrous…our new generation needs to learn to advocate for themselves, and their fellow classmates rights, because yes, they quite possibly will be making decisions on ours in the near future!
Wow. Some old people are upset that students would take an interest in their own education.
Three cheers!!! for the students.
Thank you so much, Hasso Hering for your help in spreading the word on our concerns with the new schedule. I know I am very grateful, as are my peers.
Purposely adding confusion to these students lives helps to prepare them for their future life in the real world. Really?
It’s admirable that students want a voice in their education. Years ago in the mid 2000s my daughter was slated to soon attend Lebanon High School. The school was implementing “Academies” where you had to decide as a freshman what career path you were on. You could only switch academies once during all 4 years of high school. Only ONE of the academies, the social sciences track, included a foreign language which was required coursework to enter an Oregon University. Complete stupidity. Fortunately, we moved out of town, but I know parents and students alike that fought the restrictive system and it was done away with.