Tam News Online

     In a meeting held on Tuesday, April 27, the Tamalpais Union High School District board proposed $2.4 million in cuts for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The administration emphasized that the financial changes should not significantly affect academics; students in the Tam district will still attend school for 180 days out of the year, and upcoming layoffs will not target teachers. However, other aspects of the district will see revision, in an ongoing attempt to minimize the ill effects of the statewide budget crisis. 
     Changes include the discontinuation of summer school in 2011, various management layoffs (to be announced in an upcoming board meeting), the removal of the sophomore literacy portfolio requirement, and a reduced work year for most staff members.
     Furthermore, the district plans to cut an additional $2.69 million for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, eventually reaching $7 million in cuts over three years. The district’s teaching staff will remain mostly unaffected, losing only three work days per year, but the classified staff’s jobs may be at risk. Classified staff are employees without teaching or administrative credentials, such as secretaries and custodians.
     “Over the course of three years, we are cutting more than $7 million from our budget,” said Superintendent Laurie Kimbrel in an article by the Marin Independent Journal. “It’s gut-wrenching. It’s heartbreaking. But there’s simply no way to cut that amount out of a $55 million budget without impacting personnel. We value every one of our employees, but we’ve got to balance the budget.”
     During the meeting it was proposed that the number of layoffs and other district-wide modifications might be reduced or even prevented if the district’s financial reserves were tapped – but there was opposition. “We need to be very protective of the reserves because of the continued uncertainty in the state’s economic picture,” said Trustee John Wright in an article by the Marin Independent Journal. “[The district’s] cutbacks are lighter than most.”
     But other district employees are frustrated. “We all accept the fact that the reductions need to be made,” said Tam’s Budget Secretary Leslie Holt. “It’s something being experienced by every public school district in California… But it is a little bit hard to understand why these cuts and reductions are coming from such a small group of classifieds. It’s a little hard to understand why it’s not a little more spread out.”
     Holt was disappointed in the district’s last-minute solution. “I personally think the district could have been more proactive three to four years ago when we first saw the economy starting to [falter],” she said.

This article originally appeared in the May 2010 issue.

     For nine years now, Tamalpais High School has been constantly making changes to its campus. Between a new pool and locker room, an advanced weight room, a field house, blue tennis courts, a faster drop-off area, two new buildings and many new walkways, Tam has completely changed from the 90’s.

     Next year, Tamalpais High School freshman English and social studies teachers will be paired up to teach shared groups of students for two years in a row.  The program, called Core, is similar to the core class at Mill Valley Middle School.  English and social studies classes will be more coordinated.
     The goal of the program is to start with  essential questions in both English and social studies as a way of planning what teachers want students to understand at the end of each unit and at the end of the school year. 
     “It is going to create a deep, academic, intellectual learning,” said English teacher Michael Pollard-Krause.  The teaching method emphasized in the core program is called “Understanding by Design.”
     Paired classes will also integrate both subject matter and personal identity, especially during freshman year.  “A lot of ninth grade is about studying who you are,” English teacher David Tarpinian said.  Tarpinian also said that the curriculum will consist of many multimedia projects and will provide students with more opportunities to express who they are.
     In addition, the teachers will be able to get to know their students more and will be able to talk to their partner teacher about students’ strengths and weaknesses.  “You can create a highly personalized classroom environment because you get to know students really well [across two years],” Tarpinian said.
     Sophomore Daron Austin said that he would have liked to be part of this program because “you get to have the experience of getting to know people better”.
     “I think it would be interesting to see how they combine [English and social studies] classes,” freshman Maddie Elias said. 
     Only freshmen will participate in core for the 2010-2011 school year.  These students will continue with the program their sophomore year in the 2011-2012 school year when the next class of freshmen will enter.
      Although the plan is confirmed, the exact curriculum is still to be determined.  The teachers participating in the program will be David Tarpinian, David Rice, Abbey Levine, Jennifer Dolan, and others still to be named.

This article appears in the April 2010 issue.

     When Tamalpais High School senior Sarah Schwartz heard that Constance McMillen from Fulton, MS was banned from her senior prom because she wished to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo, she decided to take action of her own. Schwartz is now trying to arrange for McMillen and her girlfriend to attend Tam’s prom.