With the new school year, there are new kids, new teachers and new rules.
These rules have been developed to create a safer environment for our students and staff. The phone policy and the dress code have been updated. Other changes include; our new bus app, electronic sign-in and sign-out, and SPARK time.
With these new changes in place, teachers and students have their own opinions “I would rate the school rules a four, everything feels so restricted,” a student from Sparkman High School said.
However, there are different perspectives from teachers and students. Faculty members enjoy the new school policies. Conversely, some students believe these new changes are enforced more stringently than before.
“I believe that these rules will stick around next school year and rate them a 10/10,” Christopher Shumaker, the athletic director at Sparkman High School, said.
The phone policy states that phones should be away unless at lunch or in the hallways during class. If a student fails to comply with a teacher or faculty member, he/she will face consequences. There are five stages of consequences that a student may go through, depending on the severity of the phone policy that has been broken. Some faculty members say this could help improve students’ focus, and create a well-adapted learning environment.
The dress code policy states that students should come to school “appropriately” dressed including; pants that should be above the waist, shirts that cover the stomach, no rips above the knee and no tight clothing. Also, students are an example of our school and should be appropriately dressed as such.
SPARK time is a 45-minute class dedicated to helping students practice for the ACT. Based on past test scores of the overall school, Sparkman is committed to making improvements. There were 177 students in language arts and 234 students in math who did not meet the requirement of 15 on the ACT. The average is 18 in the state of Alabama. Students are required daily during homeroom to complete at least 45 minutes of ACT learning and basic subject practice. Teachers are providing the best help possible for each student’s success.
From Sparkman High School, Timothy Wyant said “For students to meet academic achievement they need to score a 19 or higher.”
Overall, the rules are imposed to keep the students and staff safe. Even though the students and staff have positive and negative views about them, the new rules are cool.
