Editor's Note: With Highline schools set to resume classes on Wednesday, Sept. 7, Times/News reporter Eric Mathison recently talked with new Superintendent John Welch. Welch, previously deputy superintendent, replaced the retiring Dr. Joe McGeehan on July 1. Mathison has covered Highline schools for five years.

I assume you see taking over for Joe McGeehan as a big challenge.

John Welch: Big shoes to fill. He took the district from where he found it and built it to its next level.

During your interview (for the superintendent's position), you said your biggest challenge had been telling the community that the district would have to go toward small learning communities in the high schools.

Welch: When we try to get all the kids ready for college and career, we've got to take a look at what's happening in the high school experience.

(A learning community is) so much more than getting small. It can create the conditions for personalization in ways that can't be done at a comprehensive high school.

It's changing what high school is like and certainly what I went through and what other people went through.

It's a different kind of environment now. When I went through high school, not all kids were prepared for college and career. There were lots of family wage jobs you could get with solely a high school education or even as a dropout.

In my town, you could drop out and get a mill job. It was one of the best jobs in town. Now the mills are shut down.

The world has changed and now we've got to prepare all kids for a higher level.

When you talk about high schools not working for some kids, then you run into a problem with the parents of students who school is working for. People worry about academic rigor and they worry that resources are being taken away from programs that are working for their kids. How do you address that?

Welch: I believe we can create schools that are good for all kids. There might not be so many electives.

We have to grapple with that as a community and decide what we want to offer in our schools but make sure it's aligned with college and career preparedness.

I envision strengthening our advanced placement courses that are often looked at by colleges and universities as important courses to take. We are offering more than we have ever offered.

Some times those electives are what people like and what connects kids to the school.

Welch: With a portfolio of small schools, a family and student are making a choice on which school to attend, based on what that school has to offer.

What we have to be thoughtful of is what are we offering and is it part of a coherent curriculum program. There are some electives, but not many.

Over at Tyee, they were talking about having band after school, but kids are so busy after school now.

Welch: Where we landed on for next year (at Tyee) is having band at the end of the day-sixth period.

If you are trying to get kids from different learning communities the opportunity to take a course like band, where you have it in the day matters.

You have to look at how many kids are taking an elective. That locks a whole school into a schedule that may serve 20, 30, 40 kids but 350 are now locked into that schedule.

Also in your interview, you mentioned athletics maybe should not be so important. A lot of kids who may not respond to academics may respond to athletics.

Welch: When you look at the total number of kids on a high school campus, a much smaller percentage are actually participating in athletics and a much larger percentage of the activities budget goes to athletics.

Are we reaching out and connecting to other kids? What's their hook?

But I don't foresee eliminating athletics at all.

People would say that attending games unites the school. Is there going to be a problem dividing these schools up? Will there be some overall school spirit?

Welch: In the districts I've done some research on, I've not heard of a big halt in the sports program. It's about finding out what do our kids and our community believe in and want offered.

What happened to the idea of paying to play sports?

Welch: We have a lot of residents in our community without the economic means to come up with the resources (to pay for playing sports.) The board said, not at this time, if we can possibly pursue other cuts and we were able to do that.

I don't know what the future looks like.

Part two of this interview will be published in the Times/News on Aug. 31.

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 444-4873.