By Maddie Baker
Voices at school are being heard in the form of committees where students and teachers alike join together to better understand each other and make the school environment more welcoming. Each administrator oversees one of the four committees: homework, study skills, school culture, technology, and CougarFIT.
Assistant principal and head of testing Ms. Harper supervises both the homework and study skills committee. The homework committee is attempting to compose an official homework policy since there isn’t a written one. The goal is to reduce the homework load for students while also ensuring teachers can have students practice and understand the material. The study skills committee is creating a reference sheet for all content areas, so students and parents have a place to look for academic assistance when working on homework.
“Any decisions made [in these committees] affect all of us. All of us should have a voice, and it’s good to listen to one another,” AP Language and Composition teacher Mrs. Barton, homework committee member, said.
After the symposium last year, where students from every grade discussed prevalent issues with the aim to improve student-student relationships and student-teacher relationships, the school culture committee was established, and assistant principal Ms. Gilbert directs it. Administrators, teachers, and counselors selected students to be on the committee to discuss and enact methods to make the school more accepting and aware of the different cultures on campus in order to make everyone feel welcome.
“[The school culture committee] is important because I believe that many people at Coronado are just ignorant when it comes to diversity, and this committee will create awareness amongst people of our school, so that we can all work together to make our school a better place,” junior Alli Harper, member of school culture committee, said.
Assistant principals Ms. Delgado and Ms. Bartkowitz run the CougarFIT program. CougarFIT began this year, with incoming freshmen assigned a mentor to help guide them through the school year and answer any of their questions. Mentors applied to be a part of the program at the end of last year, and they were given mentees based on what subjects they were interested in. On Tuesday, Aug. 10, mentors gave their mentees a tour of the school, and since then, communication between the mentor and mentee has been up to them.
“The mentors get community service credit and the chance to discover your leadership potential. For the mentees, having someone that you can turn to if you have any questions and knowing that an upperclassman has your back if you need them,” said Caytlin Miller, senior, said. “It provides a sense of unity between freshmen and upperclassmen, so there isn’t so much class division.”
Technology committee is creating a plan to transition the school to Google, which began last year when teachers began using Google classroom and Google sites. Deans Ms. Barlow, Mr. Kalinowski, and assistant principal Mr. Marshall oversee this committee. The first step in this plan was to make each student and teacher use their school Gmail account for all assignments and demonstrating how teachers can use Google classroom.
These committees exist to make the school more innovative because the staff and administration are always looking for a way to make a better environment with opportunities for everyone.
