Tehachapi High School’s campus newspaper, The Warrior, was named first place in its division at a recent national high school journalism conference in Portland, Ore.
But The Warrior’s victory is bittersweet.
Alex Robb, the teacher who has advised the newspaper staff for 11 years and has helped guide it to success, expects to be laid off because of state budget cuts. According to some students, that will signal the end of The Warrior.
“Mr. Robb is the journalism program at THS. When they move him away, they do in the program,” said Ian Hamilton, The Warrior’s managing editor. Other students echoed Hamilton’s feelings.
“I don’t think it could go on without him. He does a really good job,” said Features Editor Nancy Meyer.
Budget cuts have hit Tehachapi hard, said Leighton Paul, former interim superintendent of the Tehachapi Unified School District. The district will lay off 55 teachers after this school year if harsh cuts are not softened by a revised state budget.
Robb is expected to be reassigned as a grade school teacher because he lacks the correct degree, Paul said.
According to Robb, his credentials through the Regional Occupational Program are just as valid as other credentials.
Another factor is low enrollment and funding for Robb’s visual graphics and photography classes through ROP.
Robb said when he found out in late February that he may lose his job.
“I’m an 11-year teacher and they’re keeping an art teacher with one year of experience,” he said. Frustration also stemmed from THS Principal Mark McCulloch’s system for electives, which he said, “has no rhyme or reason.”
Robb said his classes are going to be replaced with a restaurant careers class.
Tension with McCulloch dates to an April 3 meeting of Save Our Schools, a grass-roots group formed by a Tehachapi dentist in hopes of raising the $2 million needed to save all 55 teachers’ jobs. Robb said McCulloch blames him for informing the media of the event.
“We were at the meeting and one of my students said he was going to do something,” he said. “He got on his cell phone and called (all of the Bakersfield news outlets).”
McCulloch did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Supporters have written letters on behalf of Robb, but apparently have not convinced trustees, despite the newspaper’s honors.
The latest award is the most prestigious The Warrior has ever won.
It took first place in the one- to eight-page category at the Spring National Journalism Convention, sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association of Kansas State University.