Why isn’t Jerry in the Hall? Page 6
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Volume 88, Issue 3
Sandpoint High School
october 2010 Volleyball off to state Page 7
Top Ten Halloween Costumes
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Oh, it’s nothing
School district defends credibilty against Guggenheim documentary Amanda Hayes Opinion Editor
The Cedar Post staff collaborated to make this List of costumes so you can be cool on Oct. 31.
Ghost
its a good backup plan
In light of Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman”, a documentary that bitterly criticizes American public education, Sandpoint educators seem to generally agree that schooling is not “broken”, at least not in the Lake Pend Oreille School District (LPOSD). But, ranked 43rd in the country, only 14.4 percent of Idaho high school freshmen will complete college. “The movie is a gross generalization,” Superintendent Dick Cvitanich said. “I believe they
have really missed the value of the majority of US public schools.” He did not view the film due to limited viewing in North Idaho, but gathered his opinions from reviews and interviews. He is not waiting or searching for education’s superhero. Sandpoint High School boasts one of the highest graduation rates nationwide at nearly 90 percent. The majority of the district’s Idaho Standard Achievement Test (ISAT) scores are above average, but SAT scores still slump around 30 points below the state average. One reason cited for LPOSD’s success is the Panhandle Alliance for Education (PAFE), which has
provided more than $1 million to Bonner County schools since its founding in 2002. PAFE has allowed for Advanced Placement classes, preliminary SAT and ACT testing, as well as a post-secondary guidance counselor position. Last year 69 percent of graduating seniors declared postsecondary plans, but the district has no way of determining whether these plans were executed. “We have to choose between focusing on the current seniors and following up with graduates,” said post-secondary counselor Jeralyn Mire, explaining that there is not enough
Basically Speaking Do you feel you are receiving a good education at SHS? “I think that the math and the science departments are pretty good at our school, but the English department lacks a lot.” Joni Johnson
“I kind of like this high school because it’s so chill.”
Superman continued page 2
Josh Allen
Cop
“Yes, I do. I think we’re better than all of the other schools.”
someone needs to get busted Natalie Kilgore
Lady Cop
cause it’s good looking
“Yeah, I think that some of the teachers don’t do as well teaching in certain subjects as they could. I couldn’t care less [about] others”
Graphic by Max Horn
n Falling to pieces: Are SHS students falling behind like those students portrayed in “Waiting for Superman”?
Breaking down the barriers
Farm Animal
if you pull it off, it might look good
Three programs at high school designed to aid students with special needs Jule Paul
Lady Gaga
clothes made of meat are scary
Pirate
give all your booty!
Vampire
be popluar with all the tween girls
Cowboy
Giddy up ya’ll
Skiier
Be practical, be warm.
Princess
Expose your inner girly girl
Staff Writer SHS offers three individualized programs for students with special needs, the Life Skills program, special education and response to intervention (RTI). There is some confusion as to what these different programs do and whether some of their techniques, like taking students out of certain classes, is beneficial. Here is a look at the seperate programs.
LIFE SKILLS
The Life Skills program, which Connie Johnson is in charge of, separates students from their peers to offer a unique and practical education for them. These students are “many years behind their peers”, Johnson said, so the program focuses on functional learning activities to prepare them for life after high school, getting a job and becoming independent individuals. For example, they teach the students “math applicable to time, money and scheduling.” The main focus of the program is function, Johnson says. The program “is not academically oriented.” Due to this, students who are part of this program take hands-on classes, like
Family in the workplace Page 2
Rachel Winget
n Whole new world: Jessica Cartwrite examines a specimen under her microscope.
P.E., art and choir with their peers for one half of the day, in an attempt to break down the barrier between the two groups. Teachers of the Life Skills program try to work together with the students to decide which classes are right for them. The other half of the day, the students are involved in the community and work at places like Les Schwab and Yoke’s to get hands-on job experience. The program tries to set up a different job each semester for the students to offer a variety of job
What’s inside?
News.....................................................................Page 2 Opinion................................................................Page 3 Arts & Culture.....................................................Page 4, 5 Sports...................................................................Page 6, 7
experiences and help them decide which job is truly right for them. Due to this combination of high school classes and job experience, students can still be with their fellow students, but can also get an “individualized education,” Johnson said.
SPECIAL ED
The special education program is for students who function lower than the general population, said Dave McNeely, director of Lake Pend Oreille School District’s
Courtesy photo
special services program. These students take special classes that move at a slower pace than regular classes so teachers can “provide instruction at [the students’] level,” McNeely said. The district tries to create “individual education plans [for each students],” McNeely said, to create the “best learning environment [for them].”
RTI
Unlike Life Skills or special education, RTI is a general education program.
Randi Kulis, who is the RTI coordinator, has worked in special education for a long time and found it “frustrating” because many students did not qualify for special services, but still needed some help to get caught up with the rest of their fellow students. For a student to be part of the special education program, they must qualify by taking several tests that indicate the need to be in the program. With RTI the district tries to “support [students] before they fall behind,” Kulis said. The program is meant to prevent students from needing to be part of the special education program, and instead, “catching kids that you’ve never caught before,” she said. There is a screening process in place to decide which students qualify for RTI, including the consideration of risk factors, such as academic achievement, excessive tardies and disciplinary problems. Kulis describes the program as “difficult” because there are currently no high school models of such a system in the United States, and the program in the district is “still so in development.” But she said RTI has “huge results academically.”
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