The Harbinger: Issue 13 2010-2011

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CRUNCHED

CLASSROOMS East prepares for increased class sizes next school year ErinReilly

Q&A with Superintendent Gene Johnson

pg.p.22

“It’s dismal.” This is English teacher Debe Bramley’s prognosis for her workload next year due to this year’s drastic budget cuts. At least nine teachers from East are being reassigned throughout the district, and some may still be in danger of losing their jobs. This means that next year, students will be spread over a selection of fewer teachers, with core classes containing numbers as high as 35 to 40 students, according to principal Karl Krawitz. This will

Senior Sean Bailey writes his Frequent Friday from car-racing p. 12 experiences

ISSUE 13 SHAWNEE MISSION EAST PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS APRIL 4, 2011 SMEHARBINGER.NET

be a serious problem, with teachers already having to cut down lessons because of the restrictions of block scheduling and relatively high class sizes, according to Bramley and math teacher Christopher Burrows. Like most other teachers at East, freshman English teacher Debe Bramley has five classes with an average of 25 students per class. She spends around three hours of her own time before and after school grading papers and planning the next day’s les-

son. When grading major projects, however, she figures that she can grade about four projects an hour. With approximately 125 students, it would take Bramley about 31 hours and 15 minutes to finish grading just one of the ten projects she assigns each year. And she hates to consider what her work load will be like next year, when it’s predicted that at least 50 new students will be added in to that equation. continued on page 5

Photo Illustration by GrantHeinlein

Harbinger the

Pictures from the state robotics Freshman Ellie Smart is a nationally-ranked diver p. 28 competition p. 32

I didn’t cause this economic problem, I’m just trying to help fix it.”

Superintendent Gene Johnson, p. 3


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