theOctagon
Sacramento Country Day School
2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento
VOL. XXXIX, NO. 5
February 16, 2016
Sophomore parents raise concerns about classes Agenda outlines issues with curriculum, questions teachers’ methods By Zoë Bowlus Online Editor-in-Chief
I
n January, a meeting was held to intro
Reynolds to the sophomore parents. But the meeting took a turn, and in stead parental concerns regarding the sopho more curriculum were brought up. The concerns of a group of parents were around this theme: Some teachers aren’t teaching in a way that all students can learn, and some don’t seem to be prepared for class. group declined to comment for this story. lowing, not necessarily presented in order. The parents stipulated that students’ failures, not failures of teaching. “There is an energy of inciting fear and fail ure amongst some teachers,” they wrote. ed a list of requests, many of which related to teacber Bruce Baird’s World Cultures class. One request was for a “concrete” and “thorough” study guide in the class. Baird noted that he hands out an outline at the beginning of each unit. Students can take notes directly on the outline, in a separate notebook or on an on line copy of the outline. “I talk about the same
History teacher Bruce Baird lectures about the Muslim calendar with a microphone attached to his shirt. His lecture was supposed to be recorded and transcribed for students. The unsucessful idea, hampered by technological issues, was in response to the sophomore parents’ criticism of Baird’s lecture-based curriculum. (Photo by Adam Ketchum)
He emphasized that his teaching style is similar to the style he used when he taught at
problems taking notes in Baird’s class and
For example, Robbie Lemons, ‘10, orig
they’re absent. When it comes to note taking, Baird said he hasn’t had to instruct sophomores in the past. “Students seem to come in here knowing how to take notes,” he said. “I don’t think 10th grade is the place where I’m going to teach them how to take notes.” Baird said he’s always explained that notes
“I talk about the same kind of things that
kind of things that I would talk (about) with college freshmen.” —Bruce Baird, teacher
ten in class, you’re building frameworks for connections be tween things,” Baird said. “The outline is logically organized works.”
Baird said that these questions are a way
freshmen,” he said.
ing them with a list of possible
mastered them. Baird said Lemons realized that he needed
appear on the test. “He just put his nose to the grindstone, didn’t take anything for granted,” Baird said.
memories about what was talked about in
on tests.
See Parents, page 10
New Head’s Priority: Growing student population would provide more social, academic opportunities By Katia Dahmani Page Editor In a Nov. 2 Octagon poll, high schoolers were asked to rank the priorities for Lee Thomsen, new head of school. Starting with this issue, the Octagon will explore the top three choices in that poll. Increasing the school’s population was the third most popular choice. Thirty of 129 high schoolers polled said that Thomsen should concentrate on growing the school. Sophomore Molly Gherini, who at tended Christian Brothers High School for about one month of her freshman year, said she would like the SCDS high school to grow to around 300.
said. “The small size right now makes it so business, which can get annoying.” The larger size could also lead to a
school has been a priority for headmas ter Stephen Repsher, too. Repsher said the school worked from
“If we had a there would be a bigger turnout to dances, more school spirit, and a larger variety of people to hang out with.” —Christian Van Vleck, junior
second campus for the high school in order to increase en rollment. But the school abandoned
would make the social scene better,” Gherini said.
sports teams, Gherini said. also like the high school to increase, al though by no more than 50 students.
Population of the high school dating back to the 2007-08 courtesy of Admissions. (Graphic by Adam Dean)
said that he would like the school to grow to 250. “If we had a bigger school, there would be a bigger turnout to dances,
Repsher collected the necessary in formation for the school’s application and submitted it to the city of Sacra mento on Jan. 5. “The application has been deemed complete, and the city is currently pro cessing the application,” Repsher said. He said he hopes that by May bigger school, the application
school’s resources at the time, he said. Now Repsher is working on modify ing the conditional use permit, which dictates the maximum number of stu
and wrapped up. Thomsen said that ideally he would like the high school to grow to 250 since he’s heard it’s a
It’s also a better size for increasing students’ social opportunities, he said. He said that the two key strategies the school has in mind for increasing student size are to increase the reten tion between eighth and ninth grade
Repsher said he began to lay the city conditional use permit in the fall. He met with the city mitigation mon itoring committee, made a presentation sociation in December, and met with councilman Eric Guerra, who rep resents Sacramento’s District 6.
SCDS would make parents and students realize what they could lose if they were to choose another option, Thomsen See New Head, page 10