My remarks at the School Board

Jenks High School, where I work, has a planetarium in the science building. It hosts thousands of students and residents each year and is a point of local pride — when our band was in the Rose Bowl, it was the tidbit about Jenks selected to share with the nation.

For reasons unclear and inexplicable, the District is shutting it down.

I’m pretty upset — a lot of us are pretty upset — and I decided to attend tonight’s School Board meeting to share my thoughts. Here is what I said.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I come both as a science teacher at the high school and also as a Jenks resident of six years.  I’m here tonight because I believe that closing the planetarium is a significant mistake – a mistake educationally, a mistake procedurally, and a mistake symbolically.  When I received the notice, I was stunned.  My first reaction was dismay, followed swiftly by disappointment.  The decision seems to stand opposite to the way we present this District to the world, the way we present this District to ourselves.  

Jenks is unique among schools in Oklahoma in having such a facility – so much so that other local districts line up to partake.  The planetarium is an excellent promoter of the District and a notable retention tool.  Families notice distinctive opportunities; teachers do, too.  The planetarium signals our high valuation of science and unique learning environments, giving us an easier time attracting ambitious students and supportive families as well as high-quality faculty.

The planetarium is an impressive multiplier.  It serves the entire District population and supports not only astronomy but physics, earth science, geography, chemistry, and even cross-curricular programming.  That’s an impressively efficient use of space and resources.  Each year, thousands of students, from first grade through senior year, sit under that dome and are reminded that learning is bigger than themselves – that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

When I talk with people from outside the state – people who, only half-jokingly, ask why someone would move to Oklahoma to teach science – I need only mention the planetarium to quell their confusion.  A planetarium universally says, we take our science education seriously.  I’m not exactly sure what they’ll think when they hear we had a planetarium but abandoned it, but I can guess.  In a time when science is under attack, having a public school maintain and share a planetarium is a stunning symbol of our commitment to the proposition that access to the beauty of the Universe, of science, of human learning in general, is the common and unshakable birthright of all members of society.

Shuttering it is a stunning symbol, too, whether or not that is the conscious intent.

Jenks prides itself on embodying innovation, forward thinking, and leadership in education.  Far from being peripheral to that vision, the planetarium is emblematic of it.  I urge the Board to reverse this decision or, at the very least, pause it.  Invite stakeholder input and seriously explore ways to preserve this amazing program and facility, this obvious and irrefutable symbol of a commitment to science and higher learning.  If Jenks is going to lead, let us lead by protecting the sort of program that other districts wish they had.

Thank you for your time and attention.