Three students, including the creator of a petition that brought to light the mathematical tribulations of classmates at Sobrato High School, addressed the school board June 20 in hopes of generating future conversations for change in teacher practices.
Lauren Buckley, 16, along with students Ashlee Monica-Hamner and Brendan Young, reinforced their stance that change is needed within the Sobrato math department for students to be successful. Buckley, who just completed her junior year at Sobrato, posted the petition on change.org.
“We’re struggling and it’s really killing a lot of students’ grades,” said Young as he addressed the board June 20. “Teachers have no sympathy when you come to them.”
Board President Donna Ruebusch assured everyone in attendance that district leaders were working with Sobrato site administration to gather information and investigate student claims in order to establish groundwork for a board discussion.
Ruebusch, however, rebuffed Trustee Gino Borgioli’s requests to place the issue for discussion first on the June 20 agenda the previous week and then the June 27 special meeting. She said a discussion would not single out any teachers or schools and would only come after the information gathering process was complete. No board meetings are scheduled for July.
During the June 20 meeting, Borgioli read some of the claims made by students on 16-year-old Sobrato senior Lauren Buckley’s petition, entitled “Create Change in the Math Department of Ann Sobrato High School.” The petition currently has 458 supporters of mostly current and former students from both Sobrato and Live Oak high schools as well as some parents of students.
“We have to change this before school starts again,” said Buckley at the June 20 meeting.
Buckley’s goal in creating the petition was “to create dialogue with the administration” to generate change at Sobrato, specifically with the weighted grading system, the pace of moving from one lesson to the next and differentiating the instruction to student needs.”
The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Aug. 1.
