Three Hill Regional Career High School students wrote the following plea to stop the planned transfer of three teachers, as part of a system-wide budget-cutting plan that involves transferring 53 teachers.
It has come to the attention of the Career High School student body that two of our beloved history teachers, James Osborne and Christopher Brennan, and our only music teacher, Scott McCoy, may be leaving our school next year.
Mr. Osborne has been teaching at Career for 12 years, Mr. Brennan for 13 years, and Mr. McCoy for 18 years. Mr. Osborne and Mr. Brennan are two of the only teachers at Career High School whom students can trust and confide in. Both of them genuinely care about all of the students and will place their needs before their own.
Throughout the years, Mr. Osborne has established himself as a special and integral part of the student body, choosing to involve himself in any way possible to help everyone. In the 2018 – 2019 school year, the newly formed Career girls soccer team was in need of a coach and would not have been able to play. After helping the girls and being unable to find a coach, Mr. Osborne volunteered and stepped up to be the first official coach of the team. He stuck with them all throughout the entire season by motivating them when they were down, never losing hope in them, and encouraging them to always try their best. If Mr. Osborne leaves next year, the girl’s soccer team will not have a coach and will not be able to play in the next season after all the hard work that they put in since they founded the team in 2017.
Mr. Osborne is also the senior advisor for the class of 2020 and is in charge of helping them plan their prom, organize class trips and fundraisers, and sort out all of their expenses. Without him, the class of 2020 will have their graduation placed in jeopardy as they will no longer have the support and guidance from a trusting adult. They will be forced to organize everything by themselves without having any prior experience. Mr. Osborne has always been more than happy to write college recommendations for seniors. He writes about 30 – 40 each year for the past ten years.
Mr. Osborne has also helped many clubs and organizations throughout his career, assisting the debate team by volunteering to be their advisor and helping the Robotics team with their community outreach. Additionally, he was the teacher in charge of the Building Bridges program, a class in which students were involved with John. S. Martinez elementary school and visited the younger students, building strong bonds along the way.
Mr. Brennan has touched the hearts of many students and teachers for years. Two years ago, he was elected by all of the teachers at Career to represent them at the New Haven Federation of Teachers, the teachers union in New Haven, and continues to represent them to this day. Mr. Brennan shared his love for sports and his students by coaching the boy’s baseball team for six years. He is one of the only teachers at Career that students go to for guidance and support. He makes students feel special by relating his own personal life to them and supporting their decisions for the future. Mr. Brennan is always open to write many college recommendations for seniors. He writes about 25 – 30 each year for the past ten years.
Mr. McCoy is one of the oldest teachers at Career. He is a very talented teacher, having a PhD from the Yale School of Music, and is able to play anything on the piano. For the past few years, he has played the piano at school plays, has helped organized our many assemblies with his musical talent, and plays at graduation with his student band. Mr. McCoy has developed a strong relationship with a few select students, allowing them to share their love and passion of music by playing instruments with him in a melodic harmony.
Mr. Osborne, Mr. Brennan, and Mr. McCoy are some of the few teachers essential for the curriculum of the entire school. Mr. Osborne is one of the few in the entire district to have a certification to teach AP World History. This class is one of the most academically challenging classes offered at Career, giving students a college experience that they wouldn’t have been able to receive elsewhere. Without Mr. Osborne, students will be deprived of this opportunity, affecting not only their graduation fulfillments but also their passions for history. AP World History was established by a student-written petition demonstrating the high demand for the class. For the 2019 – 2020 year, 38 people signed up to take the class.
Along with AP World History, Mr. Osborne teaches four other classes, being the only teacher for Intro to Economics and Philosophy. He also taught four civics classes, one of the major graduation requirements.
Mr. Brennan is the only teacher at school to teach psychology, sociology, geography, and most importantly AP Psychology, one of the only AP classes in which students are motivated to take and challenge themselves. For the 2019 – 2020 school year, 18 people signed up to take AP Psychology. His AP Psychology class is monumental in transforming sophomores and preparing them to take higher level classes.
Additionally, Mr. Brennan is the only teacher in the entire school to be certified to teach AP Human Geography and many students signed up for the class this year in hopes to be able to take it next year. Beginning with the class of 2020, every student is required to graduate with one fine-arts credit.
Mr. McCoy teaches all of the fine arts classes offered at Career including Piano Theory 1, Piano Theory 2, Chorus, Band, and Survey of American Popular Music. Without Mr. McCoy, the entire student body next year will not be able to graduate considering the fact that they are being deprived of all of their fine-arts classes.
It is a shame to see how an integral piece of Career is being stripped away from us. Mr. Brennan, Mr. Osborne, and Mr. McCoy are the heart and soul of our high school. They are more than just teachers, they are our family. We go to them for guidance, for support, and for family issues at home, school, or work. Each of these teachers has touched the hearts of every single student at Career; they shape us to be the leaders we become after graduation. Without these teachers, whom will we trust and confide in? Without these teachers, who will take their place in the students’ hearts? Without these teachers, who will look past our tests and grades and see us as individual beings?
We need them to stay. Without Mr. Osborne, Mr. McCoy, and Mr. Brennan, Hill Regional Career High School would not be the same.
Way to go! Keep it up and keep asking questions. What's the process? Why weren't teachers given reasons? Why was the email notification first they heard of it? I hope all the students at impacted schools are doing the same. They have more guts than the administration. These students are leaders in the making! Leaders in the making because of the teachers that touch their lives.