Lisbon Schools finally found a high school science teacher ahead of the school year starting, reported Lisbon secondary principal Jack Leighty Saturday, Aug. 13. That draws a nearly five month search for the district for a science teacher to a close and will provide in-person learning for science classes for Lisbon this school year. Students were forced into an online learning experience in the second semester of the 2021-22 school year, when high school science teacher Shannon Walker departed the district.
Leighty explained that the hiring of the science teacher is contingent on the approval of the Lisbon School Board, but the hopes is that the teacher will begin with students on day one.
“I can’t tell you how excited we are for our students to have in person science learning this school year,” Leighty said.
Earlier last week, Lisbon was among 112 other school districts who were still looking for a science teacher in the state of Iowa, and discussion at the school board looked into the online learning options for three courses in the Lisbon curriculum – Anatomy, chemistry and Earth sciences.
Leighty and superintendent Autumn Pino had recommended utilizing the Imagine Learning platform as opposed to Apex Learning. For Leighty, the support with Imagine Learning would have been better for students if Lisbon had to go that option.
Both Leighty and Pino said the goal for the district was always to find an in-person teacher, and researching an online option was just to make sure students had science education credits they needed.
Virtual labs with online learning were one area that board member Abbe Stensland hoped the district could find another solution to address.
“Coming from a small district that offered no lab experiences, I was at a significant learning gap to my peers when it came to college,” Stensland said. “Is there a possibility of scheduling a monthly lab experience for those students so they know how to do things like light a Bunsen burner and some of those science experiences?”
Board president Jen Caspers said that the issue for Lisbon to hold science labs was the lack of a science teacher, as the remodel of the science classrooms gives plenty of resources for teachers to teach curriculum and lab experiences.
Caspers said that while she appreciated the time and effort of the district leadership into the online learning platform, she was wanting in-person teaching more.