Young resigned verbally yesterday effective 8-31-06 and follows last week's resignation of Buck Weber and Kathy Halusep. It leaves the athletic director as the last administrator standing.
Both Young and Weber will leave our school to lead a new charter school in Woodland Hills. Young will be headmaster of Ivy Academy Entrepreneurial Charter School and assistant Principal Buck Weber, leaving on Aug. 4, will be Ivy Academy's director of operations, overseeing grades two through eight.
This is after the shocking news announced by Marty, at the last board meeting, that over 60% of the high school teachers have left over the last two years.
This clearly indicates the high school is still out of control and the new board has failed to rein in its excesses. We strongly support the new superintendent to step in immediately and monitor all actions done by Young until he leaves.
For example, the replacement for Coach Odom, who occasionally worked as a science teacher, is being hired by the athletic director. The question is, do they intend to look for a top-quality science teacher or will his football coaching duties be the primary reason he is hired. No woman needs to apply.
In the past coaching experience always trumped academics. It is also interesting to note that the athletic director is given two free periods every day from his teaching schedule to deal with athletic issues.
Our high school needs to get away from athletics running the school and instead becoming a quality academic school with athletics a community supported endeavor.
Most of the community feels the high school has failed because of its single-minded athletic bias that should now come to an end. A new principal must have heavy academic skills.. We don't need a new athletic coach who teaches part time.
Here is Young's quote in the AV Press "I keep watching our football team go out and win games they have no right to win," Young said. "They're not big or fast, but they go out and practice in 100-degree heat. They just want to play ball." This shows his primary interest was in football and not academics.
And "We're going to go out and sell this school to the community," he said in his first Antelope Valley Press interview. "I hope the board pushes a bond next year (this year) because we're going to get it passed."
The board was smart enough not to insult the community with a 4th bond with the current poor performance of the School and District. The bond would be domed to failure.
One piece of good news is the high school graduation exam report shows that the test scores exceeded average of all high schools in the Antelope Valley and even beat the average English score in the Hart District. Congratulations to seniors who performed even with the roadblocks thrown out by the school.