For the 900-plus students that will walk the halls at Allen County-Scottsville High School this fall, new faces and new classroom locations will be among several changes. A minor change in the daily schedule, slight adjustments to the student handbook codes, and the opportunity for breakfast and lunch at no charge will also greet students when classes resume on Thursday, August 10.
Students will see many new faces as well as familiar faces in different location. The high school and the Allen County Career and Technical Center will see six new teachers. Magen Meador will be teaching science, Matthew Holmes and Dixie Flowers will be a new English teachers, Nick Chaykowshy will be a new math educator, and Simon Clouse and Brittany Holley are new to the district and will serve as ECE teachers. ECE teacher Kellie Stinson moves to ACSH from the Intermediate Center. At the Tech Center, Ann Katherine Landers will teach business education, replacing Laura Carter who has moved into a guidance counselor role. A new assistant principal position have yet to be filled.
Approximately 15 classroom locations were changed this year---in part to a grouping of all core content classrooms into close relation to one another. All English teachers will be located upstairs in the science wing or the 1993 addition. Math classrooms will be located on the first floor in the oldest section of the school and near the current JROTC classrooms. History teachers will be upstairs in the older section of the school. Teachers in ECE (Exceptional Children Education) have also changed locations.
The school year will bring a slight change in the daily and weekly schedule centered on the time and use of the school’s PRIDE time---a 30-minute block of time built into the daily schedule.
“PRIDE has been moved to after second block,” new AC-SH principal Joseph Cosby said. “Also, we used to always go to PRIDE homerooms on Friday. I changed that to Monday because the majority of the time we miss for holidays are on Mondays. The rotation will be the same as we did last year. In PRIDE time on Tuesday’s, students will go to first block teachers, to second block on Wednesdays, third block on Thursday’s and fourth block on Friday’s. By changing PRIDE homeroom to Monday, that gives everyone a fair playing field.”
Cosby notes a few changes in the handbook. The dress code remains “pretty much the same” but students can expect a few new requirements.
“No blankets in the classrooms,” Cosby said. “Last year, students were bringing blankets to school. That’s a health and hygiene issue. I understand kids having blankets on the bus especially if they are on the bus for an hour. If they bring a blanket for the bus, they will need to put the blanket in the locker. That is the same with hats. They need to be left in the locker if they bring a hat to school.”
The school will see a slight change in the cell phone policy.
“We are pretty well leaving the cell phone policy to the discretion of the teacher,” Cosby explained. “A teacher can have a cell phone policy but it’s required to be in their syllabus at the start of school. Teachers can say no cell phones in their classroom or they might say cellphones for educational use only. This will give the administrators a leg to stand on. This gives teachers some leeway. The students need to understand it’s a policy from classroom to classroom, not a school umbrella policy. It may be yes in one classroom, no in the next.”
Traffic flow patterns at the high school will remain the same as the school year starts. Students who drive are reminded to use extreme caution and drive very slow when entering and exiting the school parking lot mornings and afternoons.
A new procedure will affect teachers at the school who have children that board buses in the morning to go to other schools. In the interest of safety, only two buses---number 41 and number 7---will be used to transport kids to the other schools in the district.
Teachers will also see a renewed focus at the times throughout the year reserved for professional development (PD).
“We are going to try and really engage all our teachers in our PD days,” Cosby noted. “I definitely want our teachers engaged in professional development. It will be practical and useful things that they can use in the classrooms.”
AC-SH students will have an opportunity to pick up schedules, meet teachers, and tour the school during Open house from 4 until 6 p.m. on Monday, August 7. The Open House will see a change this year as the freshman orientation meeting for parents has been discontinued.
“In the past we had a freshman orientation in the auditorium but I didn’t feel that was good platform for parents to ask questions back-and-forth,” Cosby said. “This year, schedules and maps for all students will be given out in the gym at tables we will have set up. Then, the students and parents will funnel out of the gym where we will have counselors, administrators, and student-representatives waiting. If a parent has a question, he or she can ask one-on-one. If not, they can go out and see the classroom teachers. We will also have student leaders available to help students and parents. I think that will give the parents a better feeling of how we are trying to help our students.”
A change is also coming in the cafeteria. The Allen County School District will be a full Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the 2017-2018 school year. Hence, the Allen County-Scottsville High School is eligible for this provision, which is offered by the USDA’s National School Lunch Program. Every enrolled student in the school district is offered their first reimbursable breakfast and lunch at “No Charge”, including high school, students this year.
“The School Food Service Department is excited that we are a full CEP school district,” noted Food Services Director Mary Hobdy, adding that the CEP has made a difference district wide. “ACPC and ACIC (for three years) and JEBMS (two years) have been included in this program long enough to see a gradual increase in meal participation. Our lunch program was always strong but breakfast has made great strides because of this asset to our students and families. I hope our high school students take full advantage of this program starting August 10.”
Additional changes students can expect as the year progress will be more colorful signage in the hallways include name plates for classroom and college banner flags throughout the building.