Herriman High

In 2010, I transferred to Herriman High. I was getting to the point that I felt middle schools were destroying the ability of students to actually learn. I needed a change.

At my new high school, I felt refreshed for a while. I didn't feel like a babysitter anymore. I enjoyed the classes and discussions with students. I was teaching U.S. Government which I loved, as well as history. When the state mandated a financial literacy class, I volunteered to get trained and teach a couple of sections. I immediately felt that this was probably the most important class students could take. When I originally moved to Herriman, I was supposed to develop a Computer programming class. However, a new administration put that on a back burner. I guess they figured that there was no monitary value in learning to program computers.

I enjoyed my years at Herriman until the last semester. I had no plans on retiring, however some issues the last year told me it was time to move on.

1. I was sent to New York to accept an award as one of the 100 best financial literacy teachers in the country. As a result, my financial literacy classes were taken away. I mean heck, we can't have a teacher run an effective program, what would happen if the kids actually learned how to manage their money.
2. Plagiarism was rampant. Students felt that if something was on the internet, they could claim it as their own with no repercussions. Parents would defend their students and administrators wouldn't support the teachers.
3. The district wanted to drop their discipline rates so they told teachers that they were basically not to refer students to the administration. (Not in so many words, but by their actions.) If a teacher, in an overcrowded classroom of 40 couldn't handle the students, then why on earth would you expect an administrator to be able to do so? This way, the referral numbers dropped and teachers in overcrowed classrooms had to deal with the problems that the administration should have or face problems with evaluations and assignments, and the schools looked good.
4. Students with low grades were allowed to transfer to an alternative school (Jordan Valley) which required fewer credits to graduate, effectively cutting the drop out and failure rates and increasing the graduation rates and school gpa and test performance.
5. Finally, the day before graduation, 2 boys came into my class. At the time, they were failing with no chance of passing (both boys had less than 40%). I had been prodding these 2 all quarter. I had sent e-mails to parents and students. I had placed them on the school's "Senior Failing List" which had a deadline of a week before graduation. They had to get their grades up and be off the list if they wanted to graduate. When the boys came in at 3:00 the day before graduation, I told them that their best chance for graduation was to go to the counceling center and make arrangements to get the work done in the summer and graduate in August. The left my class at 3:00 p.m. on Wed. What I found interesting at the time was that one of the boys swore that mine was the only class he was failing. In Skyward I could check graduation requirements. He was 3/4 credit short. (2 quarters of science as well as my government). I didn't say anything to him, but wished him well. The next morning, I was in the hall lining up the seniors for graduation when I heard, "Hey, Mr. McNeill, I made it!" I looked around and there were both boys. When I asked how they pulled it off, they said that they went to Northridge Academy and got the packets for the work they needed and went home completed the work and took the test so that they could get credit. I laughed. Really! When I asked the principal about it, I was told that there was nothing he could do about it. The state had passed a law requiring schools to accept the packets for credit. Yep, education is really important. These two little twits graduated with diplomas from a good school and made a joke out of the entire system.

I woke up the Monday after graduation and realized that I was dreading the end of summer already. That was it. Called my district and told them I was through.