Schools
PUSD Students Give School Board Ideas for 'Dream School'
High school students in PUSD think creativity, flexibility and more personal relationships are most important to learning.
A special committee chosen by Poway Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendent John Collins presented their ideas for a dream school Monday night in front of the school board, much of which focused on creativity and student-teacher relationships.
Students from all six high schools in PUSD put a year's worth of research and work together in a short presentation to the school board that described what they think would best help high schools in the district as far as curriculum, technology, facility, college readiness and relationships.
Cindy DeClercq and Sharon Raffer headed the group, but DeClercq said all the work came form the students.
“This is owned by them," she said. “It's their work, their ideas, their research.”
Janelle Harkous, from Poway High, told the board the student committee has created a "dream school" centered around forming concepts.
“For so long, we’ve been stuck in a routine,” Harkous said. “There’s a collective fear in high school—failure. Thinking outside the box becomes such a foreign concept.”
Harkous gave the board a disclaimer before launching into the presentation: “We understand some of the ideas we have are nearly impossible to accomplish.”
Big School/Small school
- Smaller class sizes for greater student-teacher interaction.
- Establishing student to student and student to teacher relationships.
- Adding more club variety for more student involvement and inclusion.
Peer Leaders Uniting Students
- Implement this national organization that helps create a support system at high schools between students.
- Creates forums for issues on campus, like bullying.
20 Percent Time
- Employees and students get 20 percent of time each week to do what they want with their time as long as it’s relevant.
- Allotting time for play and exploration (hands-on projects for students or seminars for teachers).
- “End result os a faculty that doesn’t feel restricted by current curriculum.”
The Case for Play
- One period a week devoted to “play,” to help promote creativity and production.
Open Curriculum
- More options for career-centered classes like law, engineering, business, medicine, etc. to help students “develop interests and find their passions.”
- More options for life-skills classes, like home economics, SAT prep, driving courses, relationship skills, finances and time management.
Scheduling Blended Learning
- Schedules should be more flexible for greater diversity of electives and a homeroom or study hall option.
Flex Time
- Students choose start and end times of their school day.
- Students choose to vary day to day classes (offering offroles and zero periods, offering .5 credit classes ).
- The advisory committee says one study showed lower stress levels and intensified work ethic.
"We realize the school system we have right now is actually pretty good," Regis Fallon, of Poway High School, said. "Interactions upon students and schools should be a bigger priority, as should interaction between students. We want to really personalize our learning."
Board member Todd Gutshow called the ideas "great thinking."
"Some of it’s going to be really hard to do," Gutschow said. it’s gonna be a major change."
Penny Ranftle told the superintendent's advisory committee that the board was on the "same page" as them, noting that relevance is a big priority for the school district.
"Trying to figure out how to get there is the real challenge for us," she said.
Other board members agreed that while most of the ideas were forward-thinking, funding is the real issue at heart.
"I’m gonna be the wet blanket here," said board President Marc Davis. "Some of these things are impossible to implement; I don’t know how we’ll do it."
Davis called the student committee's ideas more like a "junior college than a four-year high school."
Superintendent Collins summed up the committee's ideas as: rigor; relevance; relationships; choice; and flexibility.
The superintendent's 2012-2013 student advisory committee consists of:
- Sara Abrahamian, Del Norte High
- Vineel Adusumilli, Westview High
- Taylor Alvarez, RB High
- Jimmy Byron, RB High
- Kayla Colbert, Mt. Carmel High
- Amie Coleman, Abraxas High
- Regis Fallon, Poway High
- Zach Gibson-black, RB High
- Janelle Harkous, Poway High
- Shane Kelly, Westview High
- Benjamin Kim, Mt. Carmel High
- Anish Kolan, Del Norte High
- An Le, Poway High
- Brandon Lee, Poway High
- Monica Montenegro, Poway High
- Coralys Munoz, Del Norte High
- Ryan O'Rourke, RB High
- Anna Page, Mt. Carmel High
- Jonathan Race, Abraxas High
- Matt Sauer, Mr. Carmel High
- Merna Shoukry, Mt. Carmel High
- Tanner Simmonds, Westview High
- Ryan Simuong, Del Norte High
- Anthony Tipolt, Abraxas High
- Iman Usman, Westview High
- Bri Wallace, Westview High
- Sophie Zanders, Del Norte
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