4J student reps share concerns about safety, schedule, future of AP courses

The 4J school board heard student reports from Churchill, Sheldon, and North Eugene High Schools. At the Feb. 7 board meeting:

Sheridan Schilling (Churchill High School): Good evening members of the board and Superintendent Dey: Monday was the start of a new semester and students are getting used to their new schedules.

[00:00:18] Last Friday, Lancer Pageant hosted a bingo night and it went very well. They are raising money for Children’s Miracle Network, which is a nonprofit with a division at RiverBend / PeaceHealth. They support the neonatal intensive care unit and the Pageant team will be putting on fundraisers till April. They’re planning a volleyball tournament on March 2.

[00:00:39] Next week is our Valentine’s Spirit Week. Leadership has planned fun dress-up days including ‘Dynamic Duos’ and ‘70s Day’. Our winter formal is on the 24th, and the theme is ‘Fire and Ice.’

[00:00:51] Churchill’s Unified basketball game is on Feb. 20 at North Eugene at 5:30 (p.m.) Boys basketball has a game at Eagle Point on Friday, and girls (basketball) has a game at home on Friday.

[00:01:03] School safety is still remaining on the forefront of our community’s minds. Our students recognize the regulations Churchill’s administration has put in place and know it is appreciated. I would love to start the conversation about bringing back school resource officers. School safety is something that cannot be taken lightly. These are students’, teachers’, and staff’s lives. We deserve to feel safe, protected, and secure on our campus. I encourage the board and the public to carefully consider what it’s like for students to go to school every day, worried about their lives being threatened.

[00:01:36] Another topic for today is the new schedule—new as in, you know, five months in. But I would like to focus on the effect it has had on AP classes. Many teachers are incredibly concerned about fulfilling the curriculum before the test in May. Some teachers are planning on not offering the AP classes that they’ve taught for years next year, because of this.

[00:01:59] Possibly losing AP classes due to the schedule is a serious loss for our students, and I know the board will take this all under consideration in preparing for next year. There are so many factors that go into making schedules, but I hope there will be a positive outcome for students, teachers, and staff.

[00:02:18] Carmen Gonzales Valle (Sheldon High School): Good evening, everyone. Color Guard placed second in their division this past weekend.

[00:02:23] Winter sports are wrapping up. Swim has their districts this weekend. Sheldon’s boys basketball team beat Willamette yesterday.

[00:02:30] In honor of Counselor Appreciation Week, Sheldon is having activities planned for counselors every day.

[00:02:36] This month is also African American Heritage month. Sheldon is having an ‘assembly in a box’ led by the Black Student Union. Sheldon’s leadership is also making biography posters for important African American people and staff members are also reading a short biography of important African American figures.

[00:02:51] In the announcement sheet today: This Saturday, Sheldon is holding its winter formal.

[00:02:57] Next week is Valentine’s Day, so Sheldon’s choir is selling Val-O-Grams. And as the first term in the new schedule is wrapping up, students report feeling calmness about the end of term this year.

[00:03:13] Parker Anderson (North Eugene High School): Hello, I’m Parker Anderson. I’m the student representative for North Eugene High School.

[00:03:17] Our theater thespians troupe attended regionals this past weekend, and freshman Jayda Puhn won an award in both ‘solo acting novice’ and ‘solo acting musical theater,’ as well as we continue auditions for our theater spring production of the ‘Into The Woods’ musical.

[00:03:34] A few weeks ago we had our winter formal put on by our ASB team. That went very well.

[00:03:40] And our basketball team is currently number one in state with an 18-2 record.

[00:03:46] Overall, North had an 87% attendance rate at the end of semester one, which is a 30% increase from where we were at the end of the year last year. And currently we have 600 students out of our 1,100 with an attendance rate of 90% or more. On top of that, we currently have 109 students with a 4.0 or higher GPA and 564 with between a 3.5 and 3.9 GPA, which is a total of 673 with a 3.0 or higher. These are numbers that are much higher than they have been in previous years.

[00:04:23] So both attendance and grades have had a lot of improvement this year, a lot of which is thanks to our admin and to our teachers, doing the best they can with this new schedule, which has on those tracks, made things harder for students.

[00:04:41] And a lot of students have talked about how while there are these improvements, it’s been a struggle to get there and it’s felt a lot harder to have the academic improvement with how this new schedule has been.

[00:04:53] On Feb. 22, we have what we’re calling the ‘Gathering of Champions,’ which is a ceremony to acknowledge students with good attendance, good academics, IB (International Baccalaureate) learners.

[00:05:05] This ceremony is really cool because traditionally you only have award the banquets about academics or athletics, but this is to focus on improvement and effort that students in the North community have shown.

We’re still dealing with the building damage sustained from the ice a few weeks ago. North as a community is staying positive, but it’s definitely hard because the damage does impact students and staff day to day and just general school culture. We’ve been told the repairs will be completed by March 2. We’re hopeful that ideally it’ll be before that, but there are also worries that it may last longer.

[00:05:43] So we are hoping that if nothing else, it can be maintained to complete that March 2 call. Thank you.

[00:05:50] John Q: Concerns about the future of Advanced Placement classes, and a request to bring back resource officers during 4J student representative reports at the Feb. 7 board meeting.