
{"id":1156,"date":"2007-10-25T06:33:14","date_gmt":"2007-10-25T14:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/10\/25\/carrboro-high-builds-clubs-controversy-with-mandatory-participation\/"},"modified":"2007-10-25T06:36:18","modified_gmt":"2007-10-25T14:36:18","slug":"carrboro-high-builds-clubs-controversy-with-mandatory-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/10\/25\/carrboro-high-builds-clubs-controversy-with-mandatory-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro high builds clubs, controversy with mandatory participation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Robin Hilmantel<\/em><br \/>\nCorrespondent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Carrboro High School Principal Jeff Thomas interviewed teachers last year, he made sure to ask them one question that, while seemingly off-handed, played an important role in his decision to hire them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What club could you see yourself sponsoring?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he asked each teacher before explaining that all members of his staff would be required to act as adviser for at least one club.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My vision was pretty clear for this school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wanted school spirit to be high, and the expectation was clear that all faculty members would sponsor a club.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But teachers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only ones required to get involved at Carrboro. By incorporating about a half-hour for club meetings into the school day once a month, starting Oct. 31, Thomas has made it possible for every student to be part of at least one club.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Research shows that when students are involved in school, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to do very well academically,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have several students who are not engaged in school, so my thinking was that if they were required to be a member or required to participate in an extracurricular, co-curricular or club-day activity their participation would enable their academic achievement to improve and therefore their attendance also to improve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Freshman Laney Meyer was considering joining the Photography Club, Improvisation Club and Rock (music) Club at \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jaguar Jump-In,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an event held the last hour of the school day on Sept. 14 for more than 40 clubs to advertise to students and recruit members.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know they would make us, but I kind of like it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Not all students were as enthusiastic as Meyer about the attempt to get students involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stupid,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ratosha Florence, a freshman who signed up for Step Team and Community Clean-Up. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like having my regular schedule.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Matchar, a junior and co-student body president, said while most students seem content with the setup, he has heard from a few who are unhappy. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are some people who are threatening to boycott,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, although he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand their frustrations. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing to do [during that time] besides go to a club.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Alyssa Shuster, a freshman who was interested in joining the French Club, agreed.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At first I was kind of disappointed because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t planning on doing any clubs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Jan Gottschalk, an English teacher and the newspaper sponsor, said students expressed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a little bit of furor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about being required to join a club. A few students hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t signed up for anything at the end of Jaguar Jump-In.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas said that because of this complication as well as others \u00e2\u20ac\u201d such as certain clubs having too many members sign up \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the school was planning on surveying students. After asking for their top two choices of clubs that would meet on Wednesdays, the school planned to assign students to one attend on the designated club meeting days.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As I have told the department chairs, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to find a way for this to work,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thomas said.<\/p>\n<p>Most teachers support Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It creates a stronger sense of community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said L.J. Randolph, a Spanish teacher and sponsor of Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Key Club, which was so popular that Randolph had to make more copies of the sign-up sheet in the middle of Jaguar Jump-In. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see a club that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re into, they can start one. It encourages them to be leaders.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Randolph said he was especially impressed at the number of students who approached him wanting to create new clubs.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They would normally just stand on the sideline,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Since most clubs meet after school or during lunch in addition to the monthly school-day meeting, students can balance more than one.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some kids would just go four years without joining a club,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Melvin Griffin, a math teacher and co-sponsor of the Strength and Conditioning Club. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This way gets everyone involved.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Pat Lewis, an English teacher, said the new experiences available at Carrboro, including club day, contributed to her decision to move from Chapel Hill High to the new school. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never worked at a school where that has been a possibility,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a time in the middle of the day for everyone to take a deep breath and do something they love to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to club day, Carrboro also instituted what is known as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Third-Friday,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a day each month when an hour is blocked off for an assembly or school event.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas said student-recognition assemblies, cultural-awareness assemblies, guest speakers, talent shows and pep rallies all are potential Third Friday events.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My hope is that they will enhance a sense of pride that kids have in the school, give them a sense of school spirit and give kids something to which they can look forward,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There needs to be something that kids can have fun with and something that can boost morale.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Gottschalk said the Third Friday schedule is something that couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been implemented at Chapel Hill High, her former workplace, because of its size.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The school was just simply too large, and it really had no spirit and no unity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really one of the things that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really trying to turn around. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way of really building a community and taking advantage of our size to do it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Both special schedule days were suggested by the design team \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a group of parents, students, administrators and teachers, including Lewis that met every Thursday for three hours before Carrboro opened.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone came together, and they actually developed a vision for the school, and they developed the rules and looked at mascots and picked furniture,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lewis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the students are going to find much has been built into the schedule for them to have a rounded high school experience, not just an academic one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin Hilmantel Correspondent When Carrboro High School Principal Jeff Thomas interviewed teachers last year, he made sure to ask them one question that, while seemingly off-handed, played an important role in his decision to hire them. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What club could you see yourself sponsoring?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he asked each teacher before explaining that all members of his&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}