Features

Principal Outlines Goals for Berkeley High School By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday January 18, 2005

Second-year Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp presented an ambitious eight-goal program to the school PTSA Thursday night, telling parents and teachers in a “State of the School” address that he is dedicated to raising academic scores for all BHS students and eliminating the achievement gap between social and racial groups. 

“Just getting all of our students to graduate is not enough,” Slemp said. “We want to make sure each of our students leaves with the possibility of attending a four-year college. We don’t want them to merely graduate to a job of flipping burgers.” 

Following the presentation, PTSA president Barbara Coleman said her reaction was “positive and favorable. I think he’s great. He’s committed to the children at Berkeley High.” 

Slemp came to Berkeley High in the summer of 2003 during a period of rapid principal turnover. When he was hired, Slemp was the fifth BHS principal in six years, with his predecessor—Patty Christa—lasting less than a month before resigning. 

On Thursday night, Slemp’s clear aim was to project the impression that those days of administrative turmoil were over, and long gone. The bulk of the address dealt with academic matters. 

“My personal goal,” he said, “is that every student at Berkeley High take at least one AP class.” 

He said that a proposal for restructuring of the school’s academic choice program would soon be presented to the school board. Saying that some students were coming into the high school reading at the second or third grade level, he proposed an accelerated reading class for ninth-graders in that situation, taken separately from their regular English class.  

He said that the school is looking at revising its daily class schedule “not this fall but the following fall” for the purpose of “increasing the daily student/teacher contact. Fifty minutes of class time just doesn’t give enough time for extensive instruction.”  

Saying that “we are cheating seniors” by leaving many of them with little to do in their twelfth year, he said he was going to propose raising the graduating requirement from 220 credits to 230. 

“Some of this,” he added with a smile, “will make for an interesting discussion.” 

Slemp emphasized that these changes were going to take a while, and the school had to focus on long-term commitment to change. 

“Improvement of student achievement is not going to happen in one or two years,” he said. 

Among the remaining goals, the principal pledged to: 

• Provide a safe environment at the school. One reform, Slemp said, would be that administration and staff plans to “respond rapidly and effectively to what has before been considered as minor infractions. There’s a tendency to let things go by saying, ‘Oh, those boys are just horsing around.’ But a lot of times, that’s the type of activity that leads to more serious problems. We want to intervene before those problems develop.” 

• Continue to reduce truancy. Slemp said that attendance has improved from 88-89 percent when he took over to 93-94 percent today. 

• Integrate the special education department with the rest of the school. “Isolating special ed is against the law and morally wrong,” he said. “All of our kids are all of our kids.” 

He said that one reform he has already instituted has been to include the school’s special education supervisor as part of his administrative team. “In the past,” he said, “the supervisor merely reported directly to the district, which left a situation where special ed was handled ‘over there,’ separate from the rest of the school.” 

• Continue to improve the high school facility, including custodial and maintenance care. “The buildings still don’t meet my white glove test,” he said, “but the school is looking better than it used to.” 

He announced that the C Building would be remodeled over the summer break, with new floors, lighting, student lockers, and ceilings, and a complete repainting, and promised that the job would be finished in time for school reopening in the fall. 

“I have nightmares that we’ll miss the deadline,” he said, “but everybody assures me that it will be done.” He also said that the South of Bancroft Master Plan—dealing with all of the facilities in that area of the schoolgrounds—will be ready for release to the public next week, and for presentation to the Board of Education shortly afterward. 

At the end of the presentation, in response to a written request from the audience to “please stay at Berkeley High,” the principal said he was committed to the school, saying that “when I came here last year, I refused to say that I was going to stay forever. Remember all the principals that left? They all said that they were going to stay, so it seemed to me that this was a jinx. But I’m here, and you’ve got me.” 

The reading of the “please stay” comment brought general applause from the audience.