'Teachers, not computers'
<p>Students at Post Falls High School stand on a grassy knoll in front of the school Friday. About 250 students took part in a walkout to protest the education reform proposed by Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna.</p>
<p>Post Falls School District Superintendent Jerry Keane gives an interview as hundreds of students gather on a hillside at Post Falls High.</p>
POST FALLS - Josh Wellsondt believes one-on-one contact with his teachers is not replaceable.
The Post Falls High sophomore said the state's push toward online classes would take away from that.
"I like the personality of teachers, not computers," he said.
Rougly 250 Post Falls High students, predominantly 80 eighth-graders at Post Falls Middle School and 30 students in all grades at River City Middle School held separate walk-out rallies during lunch at their schools on Friday to oppose State School Superintendent Tom Luna's education reform plan.
The high school's student population is about 1,500, the Post Falls Middle School's eighth-grade class 234 and River City's total population 500.
A handful of high school students also held a rally at City Hall.
"As students, we will be directly affected by (the bills) by both losing 23 valued staff from our district and being forced to take one online class per year," said Post Falls High senior Jared Conrad.
The House this week approved a bill to introduce a pay-for-performance plan for teachers, sending the bill to Gov. Butch Otter's desk. Another bill phasing out "tenure" or continuing contracts for new teachers and restricting collective bargaining was also sent for Otter's signature.
"The current system makes it nearly impossible to reward excellent teachers and very difficult to address poor teaching," Luna said. "If we truly want to put students first, we must remove the barriers to both."
The third and largest piece of the reform package lags behind in the Senate, where it is being reworked due to lawmaker concerns. It would boost technology in the classroom, require online courses and increase class sizes to pay for the reforms, including the merit pay piece.
At the rally at Post Falls High, where signs such as "My teacher is my hero" and "Save my teachers" were displayed, students gathered for about 45 minutes on the grassy area along Poleline Avenue. Their signs and presence drew occasional honks of support from those passing by.
"A lot of students have trouble with online classes," said PFHS sophomore Adrienne Dziemieszko. "A lot of kids can't take care of school books, so how are they going to take care of laptops?"
Dziemieszko hopes that local taxpayer dollars won't be used to support foreign technology companies.
"(The reform proposals) need to be looked over and more sensible," she said.
Dziemieszko said students wanted to express their concerns as a show of solidarity in a last-ditch effort to torpedo the bills.
"Students care about their education," she said. "It's awesome they're fighting for it."
School officials said the rallies were peaceful and, for the most part, orderly. School staff and police stood by at each site to ensure students didn't veer from the rally.
Superintendent Jerry Keane said staff learned about the rallies on Thursday from fliers in the hallways and social Internet sites.
"None of our staff were directly involved," he said. "We made it clear that we appreciate what they're thinking of, but we prefer them to stay in the school."
Two students were suspended for five days after the River City rally, including Associated Student Body President and eighth-grader Ryan Martin, for remaining outside after being told to go inside.
Martin said he was "kind of" surprised about the suspension because he went inside, although not immediately after the first warning.
"I knew I'd get in a little bit of trouble," he said.
Keane said a handful of students were still roaming around the school grounds at 1 p.m., more than two hours after the rally began.
"These students were asked on several occasions (by staff and a school-resource officer) to get into class," Keane said. "Ultimately, there were two students that refused to come in. They were told that if they did not return to class they would be suspended. They declined. As a result, they were suspended."
At the Post Falls Middle School rally, eighth-grader Samantha Krier said students need interaction with their teachers.
"We don't want computers replacing our teachers," she said. "Computers can't talk to us or make us laugh. If you need someone to talk to, the teachers are there and computers can't do that. I know a lot of teachers who can't say anything out of fear they'll lose their jobs."