Dance courses are not currently offered at MHS because the school was unable to fill the position with a certified staff member before the year started, Principal and Chief Innovator of MHS and New Campus Programs Greg Wohlman said. The school posted positions and did interviews through the summer months, he added.
The school waited until late July to early August to decide that dance classes would not be offered this year, since they were confident that the teacher position would be filled, Wohlman said. It was a hard position to fill because the school was searching for someone who had a dual teaching credential in dance and P.E., since hiring a teacher with only a credential in dance would warrant five full classes of dance, he added.
“We can’t have a teacher hired and just have an empty room,” Wohlman said. “That’s not putting our resources in the right spaces or places.”
Starting around November to January, Wohlman wants to start building the master schedule for the following school year, instead of when the school typically starts building in the springtime, he said. Then, the school can start having conversations about bringing dance back, he added.
“Then, we’ll see about school funding, positions, courses, classes, how that fits, and, how do we put dance back in,” Wohlman said. “Or, how does that work in our system?”
The school’s counselors reached out to students who applied for dance courses to fix their schedules, Wohlman said. Assuming students were disappointed after they learned dance was not a course this year doesn’t make him feel good, since the school’s goal was not to eliminate the program, he added.
“For those of us (staff) that go to our student events, we see how much dance is a part of their performances,” Wohlman said. “And we have dances from multiple cultures here. So to me, it’s another unfortunate scenario that was not planned.”
Fourth period Leadership Lead Varadha Biju found out that dance was not a class this year before the school year started when she reached out to the previous dance teacher about having her classes perform at the Welcome Back Rally, she said. Whenever the school holds a rally, the dance class performance is usually the one performance that Leadership knows is going to be confirmed, she added.
“It was kind of sad to see the one thing that we always knew (would) be there, is gone,” Biju said. “But then it challenged us a little, because now we have to venture out and figure out ‘Who do we want now?'”
Cheer and all the cultural clubs that perform various dances at rallies are great performances, Biju said. She also thinks that dance performances are really important for rallies, she said.
“People love to watch people perform,” Biju said. “Everyone loves to see people be good at what they do.”
There were two levels of dance, regular and intermediate, Counselor Beth Harke said. The school counselors started changing schedules before the school year started, she added.
“But it (dance removal) happened at a time where there were still lots of options for kids to pick from, and it’s our (counselors’) job; it’s fine,” Harke said. “It’s before school starts. We make a lot of changes because you never know what’s going to happen over summer.”
Dance I was a nice elective for students who had never danced before or wanted to try something new, and it was another option for the Visual and Performing Arts requirement, Harke said.
“For the kids in the intermediate class, a lot of them have been dancing their whole lives,” Harke said. “They just wanted to do it here at school.”
In previous years, to be able to use the dance room after school, students had to fill out a request and get signatures from the office, the dance teacher, and a staff member who could supervise while the students use the room, senior and Vice President of Korean Dance Team (KDT) Elaina Manzon said. The dance room used to be open during lunch for anyone to drop in since the dance teacher was in the room, she added.
“Sometimes, if we (KDT) really needed practice, then we would go to the dance room during lunch and then just use the mirrors to help us with formations,” Manzon said.
Trying to use the dance room after school is a tedious process, Manzon said. KDT either practices at the lower L-Building or at the dance room in the Milpitas Teen Center where people can freely drop in, she added.
“Last year we only really used it (dance room) during lunch,” Manzon said. “We rarely used it after school unless it was (for) auditions.”
Right now, the dance room could be used for cheer practice or as a meeting space while still knowing that the room was designed for dancing, Wohlman said. Still, the room is a space where students could use it to lay out a project, like for homecoming, assuming they are supervised, he added.
“It (room) would be a great space for that, but the intent would be to get us back to teaching dance,” Wohlman said. “That’s my intent.”
Wohlman’s hope is to bring dance back on the master schedule for next school year, he said.
“Stay tuned for our course catalog next year,” Wohlman said. “Stay tuned.”
