2
NEWS // SEPT. 21, 2012
the week in photos. 1.1.
3.
4.
2.
Get Involved. 1. (From left to right) Austin Stark, Paolo Ragusa and Chris Ward perform The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). 2. Senior Tyler Takemoto watches as a student signs up for his club, Aspiring Authors. 3. Drama teacher, Justin Baldridge, shows Chris Ward how to put on makeup for the play. 4. Seniors Ethan Pezzolo and Paige Metcalfe throw away trash for Ecology Club’s Coastal Cleanup Day. Photos 1, 2, and 4 by Jenny Oetzell. Photo 2 by Diana Luna
AP Econ will not be taught until next year By Shivaani Gandhi
All the frazzled parent phone calls, determined student petitions, and unyielding arguments in the world will not change the facts: AP Economics will not be offered to this year’s seniors. Karen Morris, the former College and Career Center supervisor, retired in June, so administration considered Shannon Rodriguez, former AP Government and AP Economics teacher, as a replacement. “[Rodriguez] has a lot of passion for teaching, so making the decision took a while, but in August she said she believes she will make a greater impact in the College and Career Center,” principal Nicole Wesley said. AP Government was given to teacher Michael Henges, but there still was no AP
Economics teacher. They advertised the position outside of the district, carefully reviewed the applications, and interviewed 10 people out of the 60 applicants. “We wanted to hire someone with experience. Out of all the applicants, only one had experience teaching AP, but after [conducting] the interviews, he was not our strongest candidate,” Wesley said. The strongest candidate was Stephanie Manion, who applied before school started as a substitute teacher. Upon calling references in Long Beach where Manion used to work, Wesley thought she looked “very promising.” “Having her [as a substitute teacher] is a good way to see how great of a teacher she is,” Wesley said. “It would give us a chance to go into the classroom to see how she’s
doing and how the students relate to her.” While Manion did not have experience teaching AP, administration decided their first priority was to hire the best teacher possible, even if that meant foregoing the AP course for a year. “It was a hard decision, and we realized we had to do [the thing] that was going to have the least negative impact on students,” Wesley said. Taking into consideration the uproar among students about AP Economics, administration wants to emphasize that they did what they felt was best for the majority of the students. “I don’t want any [students] to think that we made this decision without them in mind. You guys are always the first and foremost factor [for us],” Genovese said.