International Baccalaureate Coordinator Tim Mitchell will not teach Theory of Knowledge for juniors entering the IB Diploma Programme during the upcoming school year. Instead, he will teach two Advanced Placement U.S. History classes, according to Guidance Department Chairwoman Eileen Blattner.
“Mr. Mitchell wanted to do it [teach APUSH],” Blattner said. “He loves it.” She said he didn’t teach APUSH last year because the school had no other teacher certified to teach TOK.
Student Group on Race Relations Coordinator and social studies teacher Halle Bauer, who Blattner said was certified to teach TOK last school year, will teach the class for juniors while Mitchell will continue teaching it for seniors.
Last year’s newly hired APUSH teacher, David Perchinske, will not return for the 2013-2014 school year. Blattner said she did not know anything about his departure from the school district.
Incoming junior Zach Reizes, an IB Diploma student, had Perchinske as his APUSH teacher. “I know Ms. Halle Bauer,” Reizes said. “I know she’s really smart and definitely capable of teaching TOK. I’m excited to have her as a teacher. However, it does upset me that for the one class that had Mr. Perchinske, for that one class they’re then experimenting yet again and giving us a new Theory of Knowledge teacher . . . . It frustrates me that we’re being sort of the guinea pig class twice in a row.”
Social studies teachers Terry Pollack and Elizabeth Plautz will each teach one APUSH class, as they did last year. Social studies teacher Sarah Davis will also teach one class. Davis said this will be her first time teaching APUSH, but she has taught three other AP classes previously.
Efforts to reach Mitchell and Bauer for comment were unsuccessful.
