Kern High School District

Infobox School
name = Kern High School District
location = Kern County, California
country = USA
schoolboard = Board of Trustees [http://www.kernhigh.org/trustees/ Board of Trustees] . Kern High School District. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.]
superintendent = Dr. Don Carter [cite web |url=http://www.kernhigh.org/superintendentsOffice/ |title=Superintendent's Office |publisher=Kern High School District |year=2007 |accessdate=2008-01-15]
faculty = 1509.1 (on FTE basis)
staff = 1517.9 (on FTE basis)
ratio = 23.5
enrollment = 35,394
enrollment_as_of = 2005-06
type = Public school district
grades = 7 to 12
budget =
conference =
motto = Tradition of Excellence
established = 1893cite web |url=http://www.kernhigh.org/Superintendent/ |title=Superintendent's Office |publisher=Kern High School District |year=2005 |accessdate=2008-01-16]
footnotes = [http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&details=1&ID2=0619540&DistrictID=0619540 Kern Union High] . National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.]
homepage = [http://www.kernhigh.org/ www.kernhigh.org] The Kern High School District is a public high school district located in Kern County, California, U.S. It is the largest high school district in California, [cite news |author=William D. Fillmore |title=Shake up plans for high schools in Kern County |work=Bakersfield Californian |date=August 4 2004 |pages=B7] comprising 28 schools and educating about 35,000 students.

Board of Trustees member Chad Vegas recently created serious politicial controversy. He propsed a poster that exhibited the phrase "In God We Trust." Some but not all students were really insulted at the blantant disregard for pupils of a different faith. Nonetheless, Chad Vegas continued with his religious agenda, and a new version of the posters are required to be in every classroom. Supposedly this is to provide a better education, but he never asked what the teachers wanted, so that claim can not be validated. During the political debate on the posters, he called his opponents, "Unpatriotic God-Haters." The district's goals include eliminating racial, gender, and age discrimination, but religious tolerance is never mentioned.

The district has a severe academic disadvantage due to the feeder district, Bakersfield City School District (BCSD). The California High School Exit Exam (CHSEE) is written at a junior high level, and yet every year Kern High School District Students cannot graduate because they could not pass this state test. Unfortunately, even when the BCSD does not "graduate" a student, they still send the pupil on to high school. Often, minority* students are still struggling with learning English when they enter KHSD.

*At some schools, like Highland High School, white students are in the minority, yet they are not considered a minority. HHS is over 60% Hispanic, and the Spanish teachers refer to Spanish as the "Language of the Land."

Schools

References

External links

* [http://www.kernhigh.org/ Kern High School District website]