To start the year off fresh, new Head Principal, Dr. Nathan Hostetler not only enforced new policies, but transformed the way these policies are communicated. New policies include consequences for unserved detentions, a limit on the number of TA’s a teacher can have and dismissing the escorts that were in place last school year.

“The goal is to communicate the reason behind these policies, because the last thing we want to do is destroy dignity,” Hostetler said. “The goal is to voice why we do what we do.”

The new TA policy limits teachers to the amount of TA’s they can have to two, but they can petition for more. There are exceptions to teachers that have their TA’s work on certain tasks or serve as tutors.

As for the new unserved detention policy, faculty found that most unserved detentions came from tardies. To fix that, a new list will be put in place that will list names of students that have unserved detentions. Students with their name on the list will not be allowed to leave their classes at any point of the period until the detention is served.

“We are trying to clean up loose ends from last year and enforce our rules while communicating with students,” Dr. Erin Steep said.

The sudden escort policy put in to effect last year, resulting from poor behavior of students ended at the start of this year. The hope from administrators is that by starting the year without it, it will set the tone that the staff is going for. Given the circumstances, administration felt the escort policy was necessary and helped the problem temporarily. Starting this year, the administration wanted an atmosphere of trust and understanding.

“There has to be a form of trust between students and staff to help build a more positive climate with students and more mature behavior,” Social Studies teacher Matt Watson said.