Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, September 02, 2007
School Days: From cafeterias to computer labs, a lot has changed in 50 years
The lunch “hour” is more like 30 minutes.
Most students don’t head home anymore for the afternoon meal.
The school cafeteria now offers students an array of food choices rather than whatever is dished out for the day.
A lot has changed in public schools in the past 50 years, and it’s not just in the cafeteria.
Course offerings and programs have been expanded to keep pace with technological and other advancements. Computers, unknown in the classroom in 1957, now are essential equipment.
Gone are slide projectors and scratchy films. In are PowerPoint presentations, VCRs and now DVD players.
And, more ominous, schools have had to take steps to make sure students are safe while within their walls, local administrators said.
“Overall, the system is different,” said Fred Frick, district administrator for the Holmen School District. “We continue to bring more into our districts, opening a spectrum of needs, while adhering to federal and state requirements.”
Technology
When Dick Swantz was hired as superintendent of La Crosse schools in 1977, the district didn’t have a single computer.
Now, each classroom has at least one, and elementary, middle and high school buildings have several computer labs.
“Computers were a major, major shift from the standpoint of how we went about teaching,” Swantz said. “But they were also a significant demand on resources.”
The La Crosse School District’s technology budget for 2007-08 is $1.3 million, and includes phones, copiers, software, mail, computers and printers. Another $400,000 from an operating referendum is for technology as well.
Web-savvy parents began expecting immediate information when it came to cancellations and changes, said current La Crosse Superintendent Jerry Kember. That led to online access to their children’s grades and e-mail with teachers.
But technology growth has come at a price, Kember said. “Students now need to be taught how to decipher the good information from the bad.”
Special education
At one point, all La Crosse district students with special needs were sent to Emerson Elementary School. But in the 1970s, prompted by several acts of Congress, those programs went districtwide.
It allowed many students with special needs to be in regular classrooms.
“That is one of the highlights,” Swantz said. “Children learn how to interact with all the students.”
But the shift came at a price. Schools had to be remodeled to make them barrier-free, and additional classrooms and staff added.
Last year, the district budgeted about $1.6 million for special education. The 2007-08 budget is expected to be a similar amount.
“I think it was the wisest thing they ever did,” Swantz said, “but people need to understand it’s costly.”
Health and safety
Fifty years ago, safety procedures in school usually referred to tornado and fire drills.
Today, schools must have plans for handling intruders, building lockdowns, bomb scares and attacks from terrorists and classmates.
The La Crosse district has a safety committee and threat assessment teams, Kember said, “to sustain confidence in the school as being a safe place for children.”
School doors aren’t left unlocked anymore. Once classes start, schools have one entry point that staff watch at all times, Kember said.
All employees wear identification badges, and all student teachers and parent volunteers undergo a background check, Kember said.
A uniformed officer first appeared full-time in La Crosse public schools about eight years ago, said La Crosse police officer Ron Secord.
Five officers now are assigned to La Crosse’s middle and high schools to handle such matters as truancy, fighting, loitering and smoking, he said.
The security measures have been costly to districts, as additional time is required as well as data and record keeping, Kember said. However, administrators said it is difficult to pinpoint the increase in safety costs, since they are incorporated into so many areas.
Courses and programs
Public education 50 years ago was a “one size fits all” program.
As society changed, schools had to adapt.
“We talk personal learning plan, rather than broad-range,” Frick said. “We focus on helping any student achieve their real potential.”
Individual education plans, known as IEPs, were added. Course offerings grew to more than 200.
In particular, opportunities for girls grew in the schools.
“Gone are the days where girls don’t know math and science or participate in sports,” said Kathie Tyser, associate superintendent of instruction for La Crosse schools.
The days of just teaching reading, writing and arithmetic are long gone, Frick said. Students now have to be taught a range of topics that include safety, health and bullying.
Educators also have become more aware of achievement gaps and ways to reach all students, Tyser said. Districts now have specialists in English as a second language, learning and cognitive disabilities, gifted and talented and other areas.
“We are more aware now of how to treat individuals differently,” Tyser said.
To close the gap, area districts have started 4-year-old kindergarten, implemented socioeconomic balancing and added charter schools.
The charter schools use alternative approaches to teaching and learning, Kember said. The first opened in La Crosse in 1995, and the district now has four the School of Arts and Technology I and II, Coulee Montessori and LaCrossroads.
Buildings expanded to accommodate smaller class sizes, multiple gymnasiums and rooms for the learning disabled, high-performance learners and those learning to speak English.
School nutrition
The National School Lunch Program started more than 60 years ago to feed young men preparing for war.
It has become a program to ensure that all children receive healthy meals at school, said Katie Wilson, director of food service for the Onalaska School District and president of the School Nutrition Association.
“One of the biggest things has been access to meals,” Wilson said. “The 1960s brought free and reduced (price) meals. That was huge.”
But the program has been challenged over the years by budget cuts, nutrition requirements and rising food costs.
“In the 1980s, we took a hit,” Wilson said. “A really hard hit.”
President Reagan planned to cut millions of dollars from the program, she said.
Program coordinators mounted a grassroots effort, sending about 50,000 letters on paper plates to stress the need for continued funding, Wilson said. In the end, the program still took a huge loss at the federal level, she said.
Lunch costs went from about 25 cents to more than $1. “There were a huge percentage of kids that we never got back when prices went up,” Wilson said.
A la carte options were added, Wilson said, to offset program costs.
“It’s like a convenience store in the cafeteria that raises funds to keep lunch and breakfast programs afloat,” she said.
In the 1990s, the focus turned to healthier eating, and school meals received a makeover.
“It wasn’t a feeding program anymore,” Wilson said. “We started looking at it as an educational component to the day.” Some districts added breakfast as well.
The challenge food service programs face today is getting kids who grew up in a fast-food environment used to eating whole-grain buns and fresh green salads, Wilson said.
“We know how to make it healthy,” she said, “but will the kids eat it is the tough part.”
Co-curricular
Football, basketball and baseball no longer are the only co-curricular activities offered after the school day.
It’s common for boys and, in some sports, girls to be able to compete in soccer, volleyball, hockey, wrestling, swimming, track, gymnastics and softball. Those not in sports can opt for clubs that focus on computers, drama, speech or chess.
“Co-curriculars are often talked about as the other half of education,” Frick said. “They are where students really learn about teamwork and success.”
But money for those activities has shrunk as budgets tighten. Some area districts charge participation fees, while others have booster clubs to help offset the costs.
Holmen doesn’t charge students “We would prefer not to do that as long as we can,” Frick said but does require they buy their own shoes and some gear.
Parents and teachers
In 1957, parents responded quickly to a call from the school and usually supported the school and teacher.
That reaction began to change in the 1970s and ’80s, said former superintendent Swantz. A “my son or daughter couldn’t do that” attitude developed, he said.
“More and more, we are starting to see parents challenge teachers,” he said.
The shift, to an extent, damaged teacher credibility and, at times, hampered communication, he said.
Testing
Each district used to measure student progress differently, often using different tests.
“We shared the information with parents, but it was more, Here is the information,’” said Susan Schumann, supervisor of literacy and assessment and Title I for the La Crosse district. “Nobody put a whole of emphasis on it.”
In the 1990s, however, states began requiring some standardized testing in reading, math, social studies, science and language arts.
Then the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which became law in 2002, forced schools to test reading and math skills every year in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. Students in grades 4, 8 and 10 also are tested in social studies, science and language arts.
“This is high-stakes information,” Schumann said. Districts that don’t make the NCLB’s Annual Yearly Progress report can face losing funds.
“We’ve come from not a whole lot of it (testing) and testing doesn’t mean a lot, to sometimes having testing take over the core of what schools are about to legislators,” Schumann said.
How things have changed: By the numbers
La Crosse School District teaching staff
1950: 250
1960: 310
1980: 502
1990: 653
2000: 651
2006: 635
2007: 675
La Crosse School District Teacher Salary Schedule
1961: $4,300 to $7,200
1978: $10,120 to $19,825
1988: $19,600 to $37,490
1998: $26,695 to $53,320
2006: $29,544 to $60,782
La Crosse School District Enrollment
1978: 8,056
1983: 6,875
1988: 7,115
1993: 7,956
1998: 7,733
2003: 7,498
2006: 7,213
Holmen student population
1989: 2,000
2007: 3,500
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424 or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
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