With school starting, Early Childhood has had a last-minute change in teachers with the previous teacher, Ms. Kemp left the position for personal reasons.
Sophomore Desiree Taijeron, an early childhood II student said, “It’s definitely a lot easier and Mrs. Pryor is moving a lot of things quicker.” Last year, early childhood students did not go into the daycare until around the fourth quarter, however the students are going into the daycare in a few weeks. Taijeron added, “Mrs. Pryor said that she [Ms. Kemp] quit 2 weeks before school started.” Ms. Kemp quitting has essentially thrown the class into disarray, she had been the only Early Childhood teacher prior to this year. Mrs. Pryor had taught Fashion I, II and III and Culinary I, so she is not new to the campus. Taijeron stated, “So far we are doing this project about 10 core memories of our child and we have to make a timeline and poster of it and we also watched a bunch of videos of babies and why they do what they do.” Considering that the new Early Childhood students are going to the daycare in a few weeks, students are wondering how they will be able to do this in a short amount of time.
Early Childhood II student, Kyla Dorris said, “Ms. Kemp never mentioned leaving, but my mom got a message saying she moved to California.” Ms. Kemp gave the school a 2 week notice, prior to school starting that she would not be returning for the 2024-2025 school year. “No we haven’t learned anything,” Dorris added. This is part of a wider issue considering Mrs. Pryor, the new early childhood teacher, had not previously taught the class here at Perry and, like all new teachers, needs time to adjust to a new class, students and different style of curriculum.
Early Childhood teacher Arlene Pryor stated, “I couldn’t find a lot of the equipment that I needed, the biggest challenge probably is changing subject matter.” Prior to changing subjects, Pryor had all of her fashion assignments from years past to use and is now having to create new assignments. Pryor has also been getting information and assignments for the class from teachers at other schools as well as a district official. Pryor added, “As soon as they move everything from Early childhood up to this room, it will be smooth sailing.” According to Pryor, Early Childhood and development students don;t only answer to the department of education, but also the department of health and human services, at the end of the year they can take a child development associates test proving their ability to work with children and giving them the opportunity to get a job right out of high school. Pryor stated, “Perry has been phenomenal about this transition from one subject to the other.” Pryor believes that it should be smooth sailing from here on out. Although Pryor is disappointed that she can no longer teach fashion, she believes the change will be positive, both for her and the school.
