HAHS Driver’s Ed Parents,
I wanted to make you all aware of something that has come up within our Driver’s Ed program. Unfortunately, due to health concerns, our Driver’s Ed Instructor, Mr. McCormick, will be resigning his position effective at the end of the 1st quarter on October 20th. We are forever grateful for the time that Mr. McCormick has spent with us, and our thoughts are with him at this time.
As we look forward, I wanted to make all of our Driver’s Ed parents aware of our plans at this time. Our main priority is to make sure that this does not affect our students and their ability to get their licenses on time as much as possible. We have posted the position and are currently following all possible leads to get a new instructor in as quickly as possible. The reality is, however, that it will be very hard to get in any new teacher during the middle of the year, let alone someone who is endorsed in Driver’s Ed. That said, we are currently taking steps to update our program to account for this.
To begin with, Driver’s Ed will immediately be moved from a semester program to a nine-week course. This is something that several area schools already do and what our school used to do as well. With Mr. McCormick staying through the end of the 1st quarter, he will be able to complete all of the required training for Driver’s Ed and be able to wrap up the course before he leaves. With this change, Driver’s Ed will have to be moved from a ½ credit course to a ¼ credit course. With the classroom portion of Driver’s Ed completed after the first quarter, students will then be switched to a guided study for the second quarter. This will not affect their schedules as they will stay in the same class and report to the same room. It will just be a study hall. This action will also open up 3 additional periods (as there are currently three Driver’s Ed classes this semester) to pull students from to complete their required twelve hours of behind-the-wheel training needed to get their licenses.
In terms of behind-the-wheel training, Mr. McCormick will continue doing behind-the-wheel driving until the end of this quarter. To be prepared for after that, we are actively looking for certified instructors to come in and help us with driving during school, after school, and on the weekends so we are able to get kids through as quickly as we can while we look to hire a new teacher. In the interim, Dean of Students Mr. Kearney and I are the only two individuals in the district who are certified as Driver’s Ed instructors. We will be working to continue student driving as much as we can during the day as our positions allow. However, as we are often tied up with things in our current roles, we will likely have to lean on increasing after-school and weekend driving hours to be able to keep up with student driving needs so we can get students completed as close to on time as possible. In an effort to try and get a bit ahead of schedule, Mr. Kearney and I will also begin driving extra hours this quarter to try and get ahead before Mr. McCormick leaves.
Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding during this transition.
John Klaber
HAHS Principal