prospectornow.com
September 8, 2017
Features
5
Principal’s Advisory fosters culture of change BY CASSIDY DELAHUNTY Editor-in-Chief
W
hen now-Principal Michelle Dowling first came to Prospect 11 years ago as the Associate Principal for Instruction, she noticed that the administration was having difficulty hearing the concerns of their students. “We didn’t have iPads back then, so it wasn’t as easy to push out information,” Dowling said. “Any time we wanted to get information from kids, it was a survey; it was a piece of paper you would write on.” Because of these growing concerns, the administration formed Principal’s Advisory. Dowling says the club still holds the same purpose now as it did 11 years ago: to give students an easy way to provide the administration with feedback. For senior Julia Kupperman, these reasons are exactly why she decided to join Principal’s advisory in her junior year. “Any problems I had, I wanted to make sure they were heard,” Kupperman said. “I wanted to have a voice.” One issue that Kupperman is particularly adamant about at Principal’s Advisory is the lack of paper student planners. After the school stopped providing them for students, Kupperman made sure that her opinion on the subject was clear. “[The administration] was under the impression that [since] we have the iPads now, we’re more into digital [planning],” Kupperman said. “But when we took a vote, almost everyone in my period
WRITE OFF: Students help each other with essays in the old writing center in the library. After the library became the Knights’ Learning Center, thanks in part to Principal’s Advisory, student tutoring became a larger effort and moved from individual labs out into the main area of the library. (photo courtesy of The Crest) said that we liked [the planners] and wanted to keep them.” The planners have not been reinstated, but Kupperman is confident her voice has been heard. Even though she is hopeful for the return of paper planners, Kupperman says being a part of Principal’s Advisory allowed her to understand some of the issues the administration might have with bringing back planners. For example, Kupperman says that bringing back planners would cost a lot of money that the administration might not necessarily want to spend. “Every day we have Principal’s Advisory, it is reiterated that our opinions matter,” Kupperman said. “They don’t have to hold [Principal’s] advisory, but they do because they want our feedback. They want to make sure they’re
doing the best for the students and the school.” According to Dowling, students like Kupperman are exactly the reason she believes her group is valuable for the student body. For example, before the Knights’ Learning Center (KLC) became what it is now, Dowling says that it was more of a social meeting place for students than a study area. “The overall vibe [of the library] five years ago was a place for socialization,” Instructional Assistant for Student Services Lauren Collins said. “It was loud, talkative. It was kind of chaotic. [It was] not really a place for learning.” When students in Principal’s Advisory asked for a quiet study area in the school about five years ago, the library became the KLC.
However, Dowling says the original change wasn’t helpful to students. Students in Principal’s Advisory told her that the new setup was too strict: students couldn’t sit with their friends, it was too quiet, and it took too long to get in and out due to students having to check in and out of the KLC. “We decided to go with the approach of doing that structure and the rigidity with it because it’s hard to get kids to change their routine if they know the library as a place they can go to instead of... the commons,” Collins said. “Kids did not like the first couple weeks where we were asking a lot of questions.” After the administrators discussed these issues with the students in Principal’s Advisory, the KLC became what it is today. “Principal’s Advisory gave us a
ton of tips on how to make a program that we thought was a great idea more meaningful to kids,” Dowling said. “We know what we need, but we don’t know what you need.” According to Kupperman, being a part of Principal’s Advisory gives her an efficient, formal way to present her concerns. Kupperman feels like she might not have this kind of outlet were she not a part of the group. However, according to Dowling, administration will listen to the concern of any student whether or not they present said concern at Principal’s Advisory. Dowling recalls instances of students walking into her office in the middle of the school day and presenting an idea to her. “If it’s a great idea, and I think we can do it, and it would benefit our kids and our community, we go at it. Principal’s Advisory just gives a vehicle that’s maybe a little bit easier,” Dowling said. “There are a lot of times when you are all so busy with your school work and activities that you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, I want to go see Dowling and talk about [my concerns].” Despite this, Dowling encourages any interested student to become a part of Principal’s Advisory. “We hope that the kids that come to Principal’s Advisory are leaders for the building,” Dowling said. “I want kids who are involved in all different kinds of things to be involved in it because it gives us a better perception of how school’s going for every kind of kid. … If I have 150 kids showing up to Principal’s Advisory, that’s 150 opinions I can get in a very short amount of time. It’s extremely helpful.”