KHS staff respond to social media outburst

The staff at Kellogg High School displayed a showing of solidarity on Friday afternoon when they sent a letter to the editor of the Shoshone News Press that seemingly provides several counterpoints to a Facebook post that was published earlier this week by one of their own.

KHS teacher Peggy Kimberling posted a lengthy Facebook post earlier in the week regarding her frustrations with the Kellogg High School administration, a post which sparked a large social media outburst.

The letter received Friday afternoon (which is signed by a large portion of the staff at KHS) discusses the staff’s faith in their administration as well as their faith in Kellogg High School as a whole.

The letter reads as follows:

May 18, 2018

Dear Silver Valley Community,

Many teachers and support staff feel it is important to voice what we believe to be true about Kellogg High School. Contrary to recent online conversation, many educators here are incredibly invested in our teaching and feel very supported by our colleagues and administration. Many current Kellogg High School staff and educators thoroughly enjoy working at the school and in the last few years Kellogg High School has become an increasingly more positive place to work.

There are many reasons why members of our staff are passionate to work at KHS and still support the beliefs of our current administration. Our current administration supports teachers who use current research and strategies to make the classroom a more inviting, productive and fun place to be. Despite being a small school, we are consistently proud of the work our educators do: our ROTC program is one of a kind, our sports teams win state championships every single year, KHS won the 2017 Bronze Medal Award on the national level for academic achievement which means we are in the top 30 percent in the country, our math ISAT scores are higher than they’ve been in four years and art students have earned state 1st and 2nd place in the U of I Art Exhibition for three years in a row. This year there have been a multitude of unique activities that are especially impressive for being a small school: art shows, poetry readings, student-run trivia night, band concerts, choir concerts, Renaissance feast, staff vs. student Family Feud competition, drama productions and district speech competitions. We have implemented both math and writing across the curriculum and revamped how we write our tests to instill more rigor and align them with state and college placement testing. While apathy about education could be an option at any school, the staff and administration at KHS choose to continually seek and implement ways to improve the experiences for our students.

Our most impressive goal in the last few years has been to improve engagement in the classroom: to make learning so that students find the purpose and meaning in science, math, English and history and that they really do have fun while learning and experience it through hands-on and captivating curriculum. We have increased meaningful engagement in the classroom and are assessed on our ability to increase real-life motivation in our lesson plans. Additionally, our district has a state-of-the-art technology department that we implement throughout our curriculum everyday.

Yes, it is true that in the last few years, the administration has asked the teachers to “step up our game.” But because of this, we communicate with parents more, focus on building relationships with kids to support them AND we have improved our staff morale through working closely with each other. Our principal highly encourages us to do all of this. The staff that have stayed the course work hard to improve things for our kids; teaching is not an easy job at all, and it breaks our hearts to hear people say that all of the good teachers have left. That’s not true. Yes, good teachers left, but many still remain.

While it is sad that some teachers have left, there are many teachers who left in the last three years for a change in family circumstances or partner's job, to live closer to home, and/or they never planned to stay in the area. Many teachers who have left are sad about leaving the staff and students. Some of our teachers who have worked at high performing school districts in other places throughout the country feel as if they were not encouraged, supported, believed in, and pushed to be the best anywhere near the level that they are here in Kellogg.

We know we will continue to grow and be supported as long as we continue to want to work to be better. It's all about continuing the process of bettering ourselves as educators and as a school. To support that progression, administration is often in the hallways and classrooms asking staff and students how their days are going, about their athletic events, and about classes. While good teachers have left, many teachers who have worked here for many years remain teaching here because of the environment upheld by the good work, good people and the passionate education our administration supports us with. We believe that we work in an environment with administrators that support progressive teaching and high standards and not an environment of toxicity. We choose to work here because we believe in this school, we believe in our students and we believe in the people we work with.

Respectfully,

Kelton Enich, Dan Lucier, Paul Roberts, Carol Roberts,

Darby Henderson, Erin Stevenson, Elana Estill, Sam Achord,

Tori Sheppard, Lori Hendrix, Diana Margason, Jeanne Hendrix,

Darcy Furlin, Megan Cline, Jenifer Yasen, Ilsa Burmeister,

Rachael Clark-Krusemark, Terrence Anderson, Julie Hanson, Nicole Young,

Eric Wickham, Jeff Smith, Debbie Reese, Craig Petersen,

and Hollie Yrjana

One of the teachers who signed this letter was reached out to for comment, but declined to give any further information.

The Shoshone News Press will continue to monitor this story as it develops