Parents speak out against KSD, administration responds

KELLOGG — A group of local parents have recently brought some of their concerns to the Kellogg School Board regarding what they believe to be issues that are negatively impacting the Kellogg School District.

According to the parents, the group attended the most recent KSB meeting earlier this month and read their prepared statements to the board with all those in attendance after attempting to get their concerns addressed privately beforehand.

Questions concerning KSD’s lack of advanced placement courses, high teacher turnover rate, declining attendance, school environment, and the overall leadership of the schools and district were asked by three parents and one current student.

Tisha Whatcott was the first to read her statement, where she discussed teacher turnover while focusing on one recent event that appears to have many community members upset.

“I would like to reiterate my concern that I expressed in an open letter to the superintendent and the school board on Feb. 23,” Whatcott read. “I would like the school board to consider taking a more active approach in managing the district’s human resources. A very seasoned educator has recently chosen to resign/retire early. The program that she headed up at the high school is a very specific program — family and consumer sciences — and her position will not be easily replaced. This is alarming to me because our small district already has trouble offering the variety of classes that larger districts do. I am a parent of two (middle and elementary) and I want them to have the opportunity to enroll in classes that are new to them and that are diverse and that are taught by instructors with unique perspectives and life experiences. I was impressed by the current instructors ability to encourage community involvement with her students as well. She was providing the opportunity for students to gain mentors from within our community — mentors who could help with the often difficult transition into adulthood that continues well after students leave our schools. I have been told that in the recent past our HS has also lost an instructor who provided elective business and computer classes and that theses electives were not able to be replaced after he left, again, a major disservice to our students. Our district needs to work hard to keep the instructors who can teach a wide assortment of classes. The goal should be helping our students become well-adjusted, open-minded human beings able to be responsible, independent citizens themselves.”

Following Whatcott, was her sister Emilee Kulin, who followed up on her sister’s concerns while pointing out a few of her own.

“I too am concerned with teacher turnover and would like to ask the board to consider conducting exit interviews with staff who are resigning or retiring early. I was told that board members do not routinely get involved with the district’s day to day operations and I do understand why,” read Kulin. “However, I was recently provided with some numbers on teacher turnover and I could quickly see how the costs of such turnover would affect the district — which is more than a day-to-day operation.”

Kulin went on to further discuss how she had been asked (informally) to throw her name into the ring to fill a soon-to-be vacant position, but has trepidation about doing so due to things that she has been told about the Kellogg School District.

“I would also like to let the board know that I was recently approached about possibly applying for the position vacated by Mrs. Kimberling,” Kulin stated. “What an honor, as she has been and still is, one of my favorite instructors. I have thought previously about going into education, as recently as last year when the district food service director position opened up. I do have the credentials to take over the FCS program and the School Foodservice Director, which are also vacant again. But I am not out of touch with my community as it seems like my school board may be. I have heard numerous firsthand accounts from current and past staff as well as current and past students of an incredibly toxic environment that some schools in our district allegedly have. In my opinion, this can be directly related to the poor leadership at those schools and I do not wish to work in an environment like that.”

That specific teacher turnover rate that was mentioned by both Whatcott and Kulin was given an actual count by Michele Rauenhorst, a former educator and current KSD parent, who also felt discouraged to get involved due to an alleged toxic environment.

“Twenty-two teachers have left KHS since the start of 2013. In four years, we've had 15 resignations, six retirements and one termination,” Rauenhorst read. “One year alone, following the 2015 school year, 11 teachers left KHS. That's just about half of the teaching staff. During that summer, the entire math department resigned or retired. I have a master’s degree in math education, along with 18 years of teaching experience. My daughter was starting high school that fall and would be soon followed by her brother. I thought long and hard about applying for a position, but I was discouraged by many staff members due to the morale and climate at the school.”

The final speaker, a junior at Kellogg High School, voiced some frustrations that echoed many of the concerns of the parents, but also brought up some of her own.

“I have taken advanced classes and participate in the Advanced Opportunity program provided by the state. In my experience, there is not a supportive culture at Kellogg High School to create high achieving students, at least for the class of 2019,” the student read. “We are not encouraged to be anything other than standard or average. Students do not get pushed to take advantage of free high school or college classes provided by the state. A perfect example of this is Advanced Placement (AP) classes. I, along with many others, could have been taking AP classes online provided by the state, but many of us juniors just learned of this opportunity last week (discovered earlier this month). Our small school does not have a lot of opportunities or electives for advanced students. At the end of this school year, I will be two credits short of graduation. I ask my mom and dad at least once a week if I could just take these classes in the summer and graduate so I wouldn't have to come back to KHS in the fall of 2018. The only thing holding me back from doing that is the fact that I'm young for my class and do not want to be 17 for my entire freshman year of college.”

As alarming as these claims were, Kellogg superintendent Woody Woodford believes that the Kellogg School District has more going for it than they have against it.

“I’m proud of the students and staff of the Kellogg School District,” Woodford said. “And I know that there are many that join me in supporting the education of the students of Kellogg High School.”

Woodford also cited many specific reasons why he disagreed with the notion that Kellogg High School had a toxic environment existing within it, such as KHS’s consistent out-pacing of the state’s graduation rate, a significant and consistent decrease in disciplinary problems that involve the superintendent (in 2011 there were 32, this year only three), KHS being recognized by USA Today as one of the top 13 high schools in the state and the school’s successful records involving extracurricular activities.

One of the biggest points Woodford spoke out against was that teacher turnover was a negative indicator for the district.

“Recruitment and retention of staff is definitely an issue, but not just in our district, but across the state of Idaho,” Woodford said. “There are many reasons that staff leave the district and the reasons are as varied as the individuals leaving the district.”

Referring to Whatcott’s plea for exit interviews to be done, Woodford explained why the district doesn’t conduct them.

“I don’t know of any school district that does exit interviews,” Woodford said. “I know for a fact that none of the Silver Valley schools do them. And the implication that we might find out this treasure trove of information, well we wouldn’t be able to share that anyway. It’s this simple, the individual’s right to privacy outweighs the public’s right to know.”

Speaking directly to the claims leveled against Kellogg High School, principal Curt-Randall Bayer spoke about how he doesn’t perceive there to be any sort of toxicity among the staff and students of KHS.

“We have been recognized by School Retool/Shadow a Student Challenge for our level of empathy for our students by participating in SaS Challenge for the last few years,” Bayer said. “It is a program where teachers, counselors and administrators follow a student for a day to see what is life at KHS through a student’s eyes.”

Bayer also mentioned that KHS does provide dual credit and advanced placement classes, in response to the claims made by the student at the school board meeting.

“Kellogg schools do offer advanced placement classes,” Bayer said. “KHS offers a dual credit 101/175 face-to-face English class and students have the opportunity to take dual credit and advanced placement classes online through Idaho Digital Learning Academy if they qualify and/or can take dual credit courses through North Idaho College.”

Shoshone News-Press will continue to follow this story over the coming months.