New Policies
New Policies Bring New PossibilitiesBY MAYA JARRELL ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
This school year is full of changes. With a new tardy policy that gives students more chances and ID badges that will help keep the school secure, students should expect changes in their daily school routine.
According to principal Monica Jacobson, the revised tardy policy is designed to work better with students’ needs and give them a little bit more opportunity before receiving a disciplinary action. “We know there are things that may arise that cause students to be tardy,” Jacobson said. The first two tardies a student receives will be accompanied by a warning and the third with a warning and a phone call home. A further change is that students will receive Project Equal, a program where students stay after school and assist the janitorial staff in cleaning the building, before receiving In School Suspension (ISS) for tardies. “Prior to our change this year, students would receive ISS before they would receive Project Equal,” Jacobson said. “So, In School Suspension meant a student was missing a full day of classes for a tardy in one class.” Junior Kennedy Pierce said that causing a student to miss all of their classes will only put them a step further back. “The whole situation doesn’t really make sense because if someone’s tardy, not allowing them to go to class for the day isn’t going to help them with their education,” Pierce said. Jacobson said one of the main reasons for the new policy was to make sure students weren’t missing instructional time unless their tardies became habitual and further discipline became necessary. Sophomore Ma Win Myit expressed her excitement about the new tardy policy. “I kind of get a lot of tardies, so that would help me out,” Myit said. Pierce said that Project Equal is a much better solution to student tardies. This year all Rose students will also receive ID badges. These badges will be used mainly for identification and security. “We all need to be able to identify ourselves, we think that’s a big safety concern if you’re not sure who somebody is,” Jacobson said. “So that allows people to know that this person is supposed to be here.” The ID badges can also be used to receive student discounts at some businesses around town and to quickly get students into school events. “We’re also going to use [ID badges] if we have special events that are particular to a grade or special incentives that are particular to a grade,” Jacobson said. The badges will be easily distinguishable between grade levels so that it can quickly be known what grade the student is in. “It will be a quick way for us to be able to identify if we’re having a special event instead of checking off names,” Jacobson said. Although the staff feels very positive about the new student IDs, some students feel differently. “I’m going to lose it, I know that for sure,” sophomore Janae Jackson said. Sophomore Jacob Klug says that he doesn’t like the idea of having to have an ID with you at any given time. Both Jackson and Klug agree that the ID badges will not be useful. Although student opinions of the new policies differ, one thing is for sure: there will be changes this year. The new tardy policy will help students from falling behind on class work, but the jury is still out regarding the ID badges. Click to set custom HTML
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