An articulate appeal from our student representative on the School Board from East High School…..one of the emails which we, unlike the city, don’t make public.
11 May 2016
Dear School Board Members,
About two months ago, this school board made the difficult decision to not sell Central High School to the Charter Schools. During the decision, the idea of competition between the two schools emerged. If this “Competition” starts, our school district will already lose due to the cut of zero hour.
Duluth East High School asks for the school board to please reconsider the budget. This school takes great pride in our option of Zero Hour due to the flexible schedule it can bring to the student´s education. We love our great number of options for our schedules as we advance through the journey of high school. Our students applaud the efforts of the school district for the addition of the variety of different classes offered. It’s a luxury to have the opportunity to have a schedule mixed with wonderful classes like Sociology, Public Speaking, Engineering, and much more.
These options become extremely limited when Zero Hour has the possibility of being cut. A large quantity of students have approached teachers, student leaders and myself, the Duluth East School Board Representative, expressing their concerns about the loss of Zero hour. These students find Zero Hour an amazing opportunity to go further in their education in order to take the extra Language class, an art class or a career building class like a medical occupations class.
Zero Hour classes greatly benefit low income students. Again, thanks to our abundance of pre career preparation classes including Engineering, Mechanic, Medical Occupations and the restaurant/cooking class. For low income students looking at the possibility of not pursuing education after high school, these choices are vital to their future. In order to take these great electives, a student must take required classes that are offered to zero hour classes like Health class, Choir, and Chemistry. Thus creating a larger challenge for a student to take the vital pre occupation classes. Low Income students, Middle Class students, High Income Students and all students are all greatly affected by the atrocious cut of Zero Hour.
All that we ask, the students of Duluth East High school is to find a different solution rather than this $76,000 budget cut. We do acknowledge that there is a budget yet, it is unacceptable to the students of Duluth East to cut Zero Hour.
The purpose of a school is to teach the students, please continue to provide this service to increase the education opportunities.
Cordially,
Spencer Frederickson
2016 ISD709 Student School Board Representative
