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BHS student body president urges board to prioritize literacy, smaller class sizes and sustained writing support
Summary
Student body president Penn Boyle delivered a formal statement urging the board to address declining literacy and preserve writing-focused courses such as grammar writing and AP-level instruction, arguing timely feedback and smaller class sizes are critical for college and career readiness.
Penn Boyle, student body president at Bettendorf High School, told the school board that literacy should be a central district priority and urged investments in smaller English class sizes and more timely, individualized writing feedback.
"Make no mistake, this is a literacy crisis nationally and here at home," Boyle said in remarks the student delivered in an official capacity on behalf of student council. Boyle said roughly 20 percent of the district’s students are not reading at grade-level proficiency according to the Iowa School Performance Profile and referenced national data showing about one-third of current eighth graders do not meet basic proficiency standards.
Boyle described two student experiences: one student who benefits from extensive teacher feedback and another who, despite top grades and extracurricular achievements, failed to gain admission to selective universities — a gap Boyle attributed in part to disparities in individualized essay feedback and smaller class sizes. "Both rely on timely personal feedback from educators, and both are underserved when our English classes are potentially overcrowded," Boyle said.
Board members and staff discussed available courses and sequence: Boyle and school administrators described a grammar-writing sequence available in junior and senior years, including a dual-credit composition pairing (English 105) that generally runs as a semester (the dual-credit pair spans a semester, with grammar emphasized in the first nine weeks). Administrators said the dual-credit composition course capacity is constrained by college partner parameters (reported maximums referenced as 20 or 24 students, depending on the course).
Boyle encouraged the board to consider literacy when making budget decisions and noted student council is willing to provide additional input and work with the district on solutions. The student also said the student council had unanimously endorsed the message and invited the board to use student perspectives when evaluating program and staffing choices.
The board received the student comments during the public-comment portion of the meeting; no formal board action on the student proposals was taken at the session.
