Do the Boothbay Region Elementary and High Schools need a district curriculum coordinator? I am a student at Boothbay Region High School and have been at Boothbay since kindergarten. With how important education is, especially at an early age, it would be expected that the education given in school is well-directed and useful to the students. It should be expected and a requirement that the classes piece together, make sense, and meet the needs of the students where they are. This though, is not how my experience as a student in Boothbay schools has felt.

BRES classes felt very uncoordinated and in many circumstances, a subject was ditched, like the lack of history. It certainly improved once I got to BRHS, but then came the rigid structure of core classes and how unbalanced they were. I understand that a curriculum coordinator is an expensive position to maintain, but it is a well-needed position that would greatly benefit the education of the students in the Boothbay Region. 

It makes sense for the district to have a curriculum coordinator; children must be getting a proper education. A curriculum coordinator would help solve any issues within the K-12 curriculum, bending to the needs of the students.

When I was in elementary school it was a big deal to me that many of the classes I took seemed to be repeated, or nothing was done in them. For example, the history curriculum at Boothbay was jagged; there was no clear path. One year I was learning about Native American history, the next there was no history, and the year after that was the U.S. presidents. There was no correlation between the years; in many senses it felt very confusing, and much of what I would learn in previous years would end up being forgotten as we would move on. 

I met with Ms. Burnham, the Guidance Director of BRHS, to get her opinions on the topic of curriculum coordinator as she is mainly in charge of scheduling students in the classes we offer. She said, “I would love to see there be a district curriculum coordinator who could dig deeper into the idea of what are the skills each student needs to have and how do we make sure that going from pre-K right up to grade 12 that our students who are at Boothbay throughout the entire school are meeting those specific areas so that they can be the most successful.” Ms. Burnham clarified that she does not have the ultimate authority as to which courses are offered and when. in a student's education; that authority rests with Dr. Campbell, BRHS Principal. Ms. Burnham made clear that her job first and foremost is as Guidance Director, not someone overseeing curriculum.

BRES Principal Dr. Kurr, said during our interview that she actively has made changes in the BRES curriculum. She has managed to fix the problem I had with history by tying it all together. This doesn't mean that we don't need a coordinator though; it just shows how effective one would be if we had one.

History is only one field of education; there are plenty of others that would greatly benefit from the effects of a coordinator. Even though Dr. Kurr feels that she has made effective changes within the history curriculum, her job requires many additional, non-curriculum responsibilities. She wants to be involved, but agrees that someone that looks through “the lens” as a coordinator would be much more helpful than her struggling to juggle all of her many jobs. 

Student evidence also proves that many students would rather have a curriculum coordinator in hopes that they are able to have more choice of classes. 50 percent of students who took my online survey thought that they only had “some choice” in their classes, and 60 percent were only “somewhat happy” with their classes or “not happy at all." Many students have even had to sacrifice classes they wanted to take just because of classes they were required to take.

I am proposing that the Boothbay Region schools could greatly benefit from having a curriculum coordinator. Not only would it make the staff and students more satisfied, but the education of said students comes first. A curriculum coordinator would benefit the education of the students greatly.