Changes Impact Broadcast Program

By Ashley McBride

The top priority for Principal David Pinder is to raise the school's DC-CAS test scores and he hopes changes to the school program next year will help him do that. Next school year an Engineering department will be added, which is going to be run by robotics sponsor and math teacher Mr. Lesley. The broadcast department will no longer be split into two categories: radio and television; instead it will become mass communications. In mass communications students will learn about radio, television, internet media, and print. The same concept applies to the biotechnology strand. As of now, students can choose between molecular or plant biology, but next year the two will be combined into one class.

"It's a condensing of the sections, but an expansion of exposure," said Pinder. "The average college student changes their major four times, so we shouldn't make them commit to one particular subject in high school."

The four broadcast instructors, however, see things differently. Ms. Moore, Ms. Bonds, Mr. Butts, and Mr. Colston were told as a group that their jobs would be excessed.

"That is really unprofessional. You can't fire people in groups," said Butts, television teacher. "And this happened less than three business days after the new broadcasting studio was opened."

Ms. Moore was also upset with the decision.

"The Broadcast Academy is by far the most requested strand in our school. This year, the scheduling team was forced to turn away two sections of radio students because we simply didn't have the teachers nor space to accommodate them," she said. "We have built the program from the ground up. The students have traveled all around the country to participate in competitions. Who else is more qualified than us?"

Even though this may be the case, the reasons for condensing the strands is for the good of the entire school, according to Pinder.

As of right now, there are 25 teachers with more than 140 students and 23 teachers with less than 100 students. The teachers who have more than 140 teach the core subjects such as English and math, and the ones with less are the elective or the technology teachers. The average classroom size for the core subjects is 26-29 students, and all the elective/technology classes average under 18. Studies show that students learn the most when the class sizes are smaller and condensing the electives will draw the numbers away from the core subjects. This will put the student numbers in core courses where they need to be, at 13 to 17 students.

One of the main causes of the overcrowding in core courses is the lack of classrooms. Since the school reopened in 2004, the A-Wing, has not been renovated. History teacher Thomas Ammazzalorso believes this is the fault of two sets of people.

"The morons who designed the renovation of the building and the morons who oversaw the renovation are responsible for the fact that we only have 38 usable classrooms," said Ammazzalorso. "There are some rooms that are huge and could easily have been split into two different rooms."

Pinder hopes that by 2009, the A-wing will be renovated. The plans to use it once it's renovated are not yet clear. Some of the ideas include putting one technology on each floor or having "America's Most Wanted" use one of the floors to broadcast their show. If the latter is chosen, several internships would be offered to McKinley students in lieu of their senior project

By Anna Kinsman |  April 18, 2008; 9:39 AM ET News
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