Imagine a world where you have to get a form signed by your parents and four out of your seven teachers just to join an AP class. This was the reality for physical education teacher Brian Koltz, who attended East from 2002-2007, and math teacher Susan Little, who attended from 1998- 2002.
According to Koltz, AP classes were reserved for people who were genuinely interested in the topic of the class, not just the way it would look on their college applications.
The competitive nature of East has always been prominent, but has picked up in the last decade according to numerous former East students who now teach here.
“My personal opinion is [the competition is] kind of a two headed beast. I think much of it is student-driven competition, and I think some of it is just the reality of the times we live in,” East alum and history teacher Dominic Koplar said.
When Koplar was a student, he said it was normal to take two or three Advanced Placement classes instead of five or six. Additionally, the APs were more like college classes than they tend to be now.
Physical education teacher and East graduate of 2013 Jon Beyle Jr. had a similar experience in his high school years. He took only one AP, as opposed to the many students who now take around six or more over their four years.
“I have had kids come to me and say, ‘Hey Coach, I can’t play baseball this year because I have too many AP classes,’” Beyle Jr. said. “I don’t think it’s healthy for anybody to miss out on something because you have so much work to do… but I also see why parents and kids feel like they are sort of forced into those arenas.”
Back then, students were able to show up for school at 7:30 a.m. (as opposed to the normal 8:45) for an optional “zero period,” where they would take an additional class before school officially started. This was eventually cut due to inequity issues, as not all students had a way to get themselves to school at that time.
East has seven teachers who attended as students. The transition from student to teacher was a complicated one.
“It’s been fun but weird to switch my perspective from these people are above me to these people are now my peers and coworkers,” Beyle said. “But it is cool that I get to work with some of my favorite teachers that I had in school.”
Shari Manning-Cook, who graduated in 2004, has Kelly Allen’s chemistry class engraved in her brain.
“It dates myself a little bit, but I was actually in her class when September 11th happened. We were taking a quiz on sig figs. I will forever remember sig figs because of that.”
Some former East football players have expressed their excitement about the direction this season is headed. Adaptive learning TA Thomas Morrow and biology teacher Joshua Hartzog shared their opinions on the new leadership in place.
“The football team is similar in terms of being small and not as big as the schools that are of a similar size to us. So we are generally playing against bigger teams from large schools and that makes it hard,” Hartzog said. ¨It seems like the new coach has been doing a great job of recruiting and providing the opportunity for kids to play.”
“I loved football as a kid; I’m happy about this leadership,” Morrow said.
