April Forum Report: 4/29
“Green” practices on campus, Exhibition Day , and a possible homeroom “fair” were all points of discussion at The Forum on Wednesday, April 29 in room 93. This was the second to last Forum of the school year.
The first topic was how to make SDA morefriendly to the environment, in correlation with Green Week this week.
One senior asked if SDA’s upcoming renovations had any emphasis on making campus more efficient. Principal Tim Hornig said in response that plans included things like more efficient lighting, but nothing as drastic as solar panels.
Student ideas for making campus “greener” overall included trash cans with lids to reduce blown away litter, less paper in classrooms, more recycling bins, and waterless urinals.
Additionally, Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones suggested that teachers close their doors while air conditioner is running, and Hornig asked if students would appreciate more stations to fill up their reusable water bottles, similar to the station by the Mosaic (and many Forum attendees voiced their approval of this idea).
A final idea was planting a garden in the large hill of dirt near the softball field. This, explained one attendee, would hold the dirt in place to reduce dust nearby, in addition to adding more plants to the school. Another student suggested succulents to reduce the amount of water used, but Hornig explained that the plants on campus are generally watered by recycled water anyway.
After Li closed discussion on helping the environment, she moved the conversation to Exhibition Day, which is happening on May 29.
Junior Emma Schneir explained that there are new food restrictions this year, including limiting calorie counts for any food sold, and that no food will be sold during the first session. This was partially done to limit the amount of people using Exhibition Day as just a way to make a profit
Around 100 exhibits have signed up but more are still being accepted.
One student suggested advertising the event beforehand, possibly in the form of people performing like they will on Exhibition Day. In theory, this would increase awareness for the event overall, especially among freshman.
The last topic that this month’s Forum covered was the continuation of a discussion about a possible “homeroom fair.” Homerooms could set up booths, like the booths at the elective fair. While the possibility of doing this at the end of the year was mentioned, most students seemed to like the idea of doing it during the first week of school, so that freshmen would be more likely to choose the right homeroom for them.
Students suggested that representatives from themed homerooms could go down to the gym, where freshmen go during the first week of school, to “give a face” to each homeroom and help students decide based on something more than what they may have heard about homeroom teachers.
In addition, there could be a Homeroom Olympics event very early in the school year to give new freshmen a sample of homeroom culture early on. This led to a short discussion about possibly moving Homeroom Olympics earlier in the year over all.
Another suggestion relating to homeroom was making announcements in homeroom more planned, so they would feel like part of the homeroom routine, instead of interrupting the routine.
One attendee expressed dislike for homeroom, but this did not seem to be the general opinion in the room. At one point, a student asked if the possibility of getting rid of homeroom to move up SDA’s release time was still on the table. In response, Hornig ended the meeting by stating that homeroom will not be leaving SDA.