Mass layoffs to hit Branson school

BRANSON - The Branson school district, consisting of a physical and an online school, is preparing to fire a large number of employees amid financial trouble that the superintendent says is the result of the ...

[Alumni]

" I want to weigh in as an Alumni of Branson High School. There have been hundreds of Alumni come out of the school in Branson who have been very successful in life, in business and in relationships! We have graduates who have gone into every type of business imaginable from Veterinary Medicine, a retired General in the Army who worked in the Pentagon, business owners, teachers, administrators, artists, etc! We have graduates that have Masters Degrees, we have a Princeton Graduate, we have people who come out of the school system with balance and confidence and educational excellance! This article and others I have read are EXTREMELY one sided, inaccurate in some of the information and shed a dismal light on a very strong, educationally sound school system that has proven itself over many years and generations of graduates. VERY lopsided story, "Garbagism" is what it is called in the News industry. Branson is a GREAT place to go to school! A Great place to raise your kids! A Great place to Make a life not just a Living!! Go there and check it out yourself!! Class sizes are small (which is statistically what schools all over the nation are trying to achieve), teachers and a community who CARE about the students! Safety, leadership training, athletics,...I could go on. Suffice it to say there is a VERY different story which demands to be written about the TRUTH of this precious and productive rural school! I say......take your kids there! You will never be sorry!!

Branson School continuing to bless lives is not the question. Does it have the right Superintendent to lead through this crisis??(remember that ALL school districts go through crises/every state of the nation) That IS the REAL question.....I for one don't think so.

[My View]

I read with absolute HORROR the Trinidad article about supt. Birden and thought, "Oh no, he's ruining another school." I have lived through his reigh of terror, and In my humble opinion, positive attitudes are not possible when he is around. Teacher morale? Forget it. He stomps morale and never looks back. He is well known for his biting "letters." Too bad he doesn't practice what he preaches with regard to positive attitudes. Usually his little letters are full of slander and lies. This school is doomed - just like Sayer, Yukon and Duncan. Ask some of those people what they think of the good Dr. He will love driving off the staff without regard to who is needed and who is not. It's personal preference, and you can bet he'll have some buds to fill those spots. He'll have you believe he has many years experience in public education when in fact it's mostly military service. School is not the army. He can't run a school or his personal life. I will always believe he was one of the most mean, vile individuals I've ever encountered. I am so sorry for you school.