Letter to the Board from Jennifer Shipp, former HLMS Math Teacher

October 13, 2025

My name is Jennifer Shipp and I am currently the 6th and 7th grade math teacher at Harbor Lights Middle School and previously taught 7th and 8th grade math.  Friday, October 3rd, I put in my resignation from Bandon School District. I have been an educator for 18 years and never would have considered leaving a teaching position mid year until this year. 

Last year was an extremely hard year for most of us. The district’s behavior during contract negotiations was like nothing I have ever experienced. The consequences and resulting culture of those actions contributed to my decision.

In addition to the chaos of last year, I chose to start looking for alternate employment because of the decision made concerning the math pathways. I have taught middle school math for 11 years and I have never heard of a district skipping all 8th grade students an entire grade level regardless of ability.  8th grade math is pre-algebra. It prepares students for Algebra 1. The 8th graders this year, other than those who had already been advanced, have completely skipped pre-algebra and been thrown into Algebra 1. This decision is reckless and is not what is best for kids.  Students who are behind grade levels and in need of remediation were also advanced. Advancing students who are not ready, especially students who need remediation, puts them further behind, gives them content that they are not ready to take in, and sets them up for failure. The Algebra Topics class is supposed to move at a slower pace but still teaches Algebra 1. The reasoning that I was given was that we needed to increase rigor. That if students fail algebra 1 in 8th grade, it’s ok because they are seeing the content and will then be ready to pass Algebra 1 the next year. This is not how math works. Those students are missing the foundational skills needed to be successful in Algebra 1. Throwing someone into a class that they are not ready for and expecting them to pass the second time simply because they are taking the same class twice is not reasonable or logical.

One of the most frustrating things about this is that what we were doing was working. Math at the middle school was unstable before I began teaching in Bandon, with less than ideal teaching practices and mid-year turnover taken over by long term subs. The math department at the highschool has recently struggled with the same problems. However, things had been improving at the middle school level with 100% of 8th grade students last year meeting their target growth and increasing state test scores, but change takes time. The decision to advance all 8th grade students does not consider this fact. This year, students as early as 5th grade are advancing a grade level if they show that they are ready to do so by their iReady,  NWEA, classroom,  and state test data.  Every year, more and more students have been able to take advantage of this advancement opportunity based on their data. What we were doing was working. We were already advancing students who showed they were ready. We had data based criteria in place to make those decisions, and the number of students that were able to take advantage of that was growing every year.

Now, we are almost an entire quarter into the school year and panicking because it has quickly become apparent that this whole grade level advancement for all is not working. It seems that this decision was not well thought out or researched and there was no collaboration with teachers who know the kids and their mathematical abilities. I was told that the decision had been made and we were doing it.

In addition, the letter that went out to inform parents of this change was very misleading. It said absolutely nothing about students skipping 8th grade math entirely and instead just named the different math classes that students would be placed into. If I did not know the grade level standards and what is supposed to be taught at each level, I would not know what that letter meant. I am positive that there are still parents that do not understand what is happening with math this year. This is not right and ethically, I cannot support any of it.

Finally, I am truly disappointed in the lack of accountability being taken by the superintendent regarding her behavior and the lack of checks and balances shown by the board regarding what has happened. I have worked in other districts, and this is not normal. Districts do not operate this way. Turnover does not occur at this rate. If this many teachers, parents, and community members are this upset, there is a very serious problem. One that should be thoroughly investigated and addressed regarding the leadership in this district.

Thank you for listening.

Jennifer Shipp