ACADEMICS are ALWAYS our TOP PRIORITY

We're in the midst of a parent/community/student survey about whether or not to move forward with the potential addition of baseball as a spring sport at YHS. Several of the comments on the survey are geared to us needing to focus more on academics. I get that. Academic opportunities and achievement are always our top priority, although school activities often get much more publicity and attention on social media.

It's just the way it is but your state champion One-Act program is going to get more attention than 4th period biology classes. Your district champion softball team is going to be in the newspaper more than our coding clubs at YES and YMS. More people are going to show up to volleyball, football, wrestling, tennis, and basketball events than they do to see work certification offerings in our business department. That doesn't mean that academics aren't our #1 priority.

I'm not complaining at all because we believe in trying to be the best in academics, fine arts, athletics, and extra-curriculars. That's what York deserves. I am in charge of the YPS Facebook page and Twitter account. When I post pictures and posts on Facebook about academic programming, show kids working hard in math, social studies, or science classes we will get a few comments and likes, which is nice. When we post the results from a soccer game, wrestling invite, or speech tournament, we will get much more attention. It is what it is and that's not unique to York.

Below is a brief rundown of just some of the academic programs we’ve added here in York just over the past few years, while keeping our average annual spending growth at 1.5%. We are ever-changing and improving and need to continue to do so to offer our students as many high quality choices as possible.
• Work certification in irrigation technology and chemical application
• Agronomy Academy and 12 other Career Academies for juniors and seniors to choose from
• Microsoft Office certification
• Animal Science lab and courses at YMS and YHS
• Greenhouse and Plant Science curriculum at YMS and YHS
• Welding and Precision Farming course updates
• Coding Clubs at YES and YMS
• Robotics at YMS and YHS
• Internships at York General Hospital and Truck Center Companies
• Entrepreneurship Academies
• Technical Math at YHS
• Drama Course at YMS
• Tripled our Personal Finance Business course offerings
• Invention Convention and Math Counts Teams at YES and YMS
• Media Productions
• Graphic Design
• Social and Emotional developmental courses at YES
• Reading and Math Strategies courses at YMS and YHS

Rest assured, our primary focus is always on academics.