Looking forward to a new year, new school

MAT-SU — From the first day of the new school year at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, changes were obvious. One major change that the school district enacted was expanding student schedules from six periods to seven periods a day. This new policy, like many, tracks into uncharted waters and has students and administrators holding their breath. Students worry about additional workloads, while teachers try to balance shorter class periods with a larger number of students.

Anthony Kristich, a CTHS math teacher, said he is finding a seven-period day leads to an educational dilemma.

“My choice is to either move too fast through the material, or not cover as much,” Kristich said. “I’m either going to leave people behind because I’m moving too quickly, or I’m going to slow down and try to work at a pace I think is reasonable and we are not going to get as much.”

Another point the seven-period day brings into view is the conflict of quality and quantity. While more classes a day offer more variety and options, other subjects such as science, math and English loose 30 minutes of instructional time a week. That adds up over an entire school year, and raises concerns that knowledge in core subjects will begin to degrade.

Will students be less prepared as they move into higher-level classes, college and the workplace?

“That’s an open question,” said Anthony Kristich.

The new schedules however, have attracted much less student interest than firmer electronic policies that don’t allow common devices such as iPods, MP3 players and cellphones. In recent years, the use of electronics had been up to individual teachers.

“All we did was we went from a divided house to a unified one,” said Mark Okeson, the new CTHS principal.

He said the decision to adopt an electronics policy similar to ones that exist at other high schools is in line with the professional atmosphere of CTHS.

Many students, however, describe how they use their music as background noise to focus on their work and dampen distractions. Others argue that the teachers’ ability to openly decide when to use electronics put CTHS above other schools in the district and demonstrated how responsible its students are.

Now many students say they feel like they aren’t trusted to do what’s right.

“If the administrator takes away all of our electronics and all of our privileges to use all that, then you are not going to have a good, happy school system, or school year,” said CTHS junior Charlie Stormont.

While district-wide changes have rocked high school students everywhere in the Valley, other changes have been subtler. Changes in student mentality, stiffer discipline and added structure to grading and teaching procedure have altered the social atmosphere of the school in positive and negative ways.

Many upper classmen say they feel robbed of the flexibility that fewer regulations imposed in previous years, saying that they valued being responsible for themselves. On the flip side, many students say they find comfort knowing that issues like bullying and school security have been moved to the forefront.

“I think the changes in the school and the new rules are pretty good,” said CTHS junior Kyle Brunger. “They have good harassment policies that weren’t really put into effect last year, and they actually look like they are going to be put into effect.”

Though there have been many changes in the school, it is still too early to say whether they are positive or negative. For some students, change in school policy and atmosphere might be seen as a step in the right direction, while others might perceive stricter rules as lack of trust from the school administration and staff.

We think that as time goes by, students will adjust to the new policies at CTHS and prove to the administration and faculty that some of these changes are unnecessary.

Sophie Harris is a senior at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School. It is her second year writing for the Schools Page. Zach Neubauer is a sophomore at CTHS. This is his first year writing for the Schools Page.