Filling the Gap in African-American History Topic of School Board Meeting

The course list for Woodland Hills High School’s upcoming school year leaves some school board members hoping to fill educational holes in the future.

The list, approved unanimously by the school board at its regular meeting Wednesday night, lacks an initiative to educate students on African-American history, said Robert Clanagan, the only African-American board member.

“There are not enough [courses] and they are not offered throughout the year,” he said. “And the quality of what does go on could be better.”

Clanagan said he thinks many African-American children do not know their history, and schools throughout the United States should do a better job providing individual courses and additional topics in existing classes.  

Woodland Hills High School offers one African-American history course, which lasts for one semester.

Superintendent Walter Calinger said Woodland Hills has room for improvement in educating students on different cultures. He said the school should help students understand how different cultures and histories have affected the United States.  

“We have to make sure we tell history like it really happened,” Calinger said

Clanagan said providing African-American students with more knowledge of their history will give them more pride in their race. And, he said, with negative statistics surrounding the race, students need to understand their history in order to build self-confidence.

“Maybe they can see themselves in a different light by knowing what their history is and what their roots are,” he said.

Although regular history and social studies classes teach African-American topics, Clanagan said more can be done to step up what is being taught. He mentioned to the board that some students do not know African-American inventors led the way for Thomas Edison to create electricity or Alexander Bell to create a modern telephone system.

“We fall short as a country,” Clanagan said to the board. “The whole story is not being told.”

Calinger said it is the school’s goal to teach all aspects of history and provide students with a cultural outlook that cultivates more success after high school navigating through an international job market.

“Our job is to make [the students] aware of the world and provide them with the ability to go into that world and succeed," he said.

School Board Notes:

• The board voted unanimously to expel the first student for the 2010-11 school year. The student is going to miss the rest of the year and next year. The student can re-enroll in the high school’s Promise program, which brings suspended and expelled students back to school, after completing anger management. Calinger credited the low-expulsion levels to programs like the Promise program and anti-bullying campaigns.

• The board approved a district-wide feasibility study which will cost $13,000. The study is being conducted to explore if any buildings can be improved throughout the district.Foreman Architects Engineers said it will refund 75 percent of the money after the district selects an option after an agreement is signed with the company and a schematic design phase is completed.