By Amber McGee
Courier Staff Writer
It’s been nearly 60 days since James Logan ran out of AP English Lang. and Comp. textbooks and finally it appears a solution has been found.
The idea on how to fix this book shortage comes from the Language Arts Department Chair Jodie Schawtzfarb.
On October 27th teachers told students that have textbooks to turn them in. There will be a big shuffle later in the year and by the end, Schawtzfarb hopes, there will be enough books for every student in every class to get one.
So what is this plan that will save the students of the school? A rather simple one, really.
After talking to the book room and taking note of the current number of books, edition numbers in mind, Schawtfarb then sent out a questionnaire to all English teachers that teach AP English Lang. and Comp.. Once those results were in she put her plan in motion: every AP student that has a copy of the book will turn them in, and one class will get all first edition books while the others get second edition books. While this still means more books will have to eventually be ordered, it’s a good idea that comes when one is needed.
As of right now there are no clear cut numbers, and the biggest problem in getting this solution to work is time. Schawtfarb puts it like this, “We need time to get the numbers, time to count the books, time to assign the books, time to order the books…Time is the biggest issue right now.”
By her estimates at least a hundred or more extra books will need to be ordered. It will cost a bit, but considering that in some classes 20% of students don’t have a book, it’s money well spent.
Right now the plans are that Hannigan’s classes will get all of the first edition books, while all the other teachers will receive the second editions. For the time being, the classes that won’t get their books until later will have to use supplementary sources.