This school year has been a bit chaotic and perplexed.
It is a custom and duty for the school’s leadership class to create and take the initiative of planning school-wide events, but there has been a series of rescheduling and canceling basically all of the events. The student body’s spirit lies within the creativeness of the leadership class, but how can there be spirit if there isn’t anything to be hopeful or excited about?
This year’s leadership class experienced some major changes. Ms. Mahmoudi was the former leader ship teacher but after her departure, Mr.Bonsteel took over all of the responsibilities.
“I like being the leadership teacher, it’s a great job; it’s fun, it’s exciting. I just wish we didn’t have so many restrictions put on us so that we can do a whole lot more fun stuff. We’re gonna make some things happen,” stated Mr. Bonsteel, History and Leadership teacher.
Hopefully, what Mr. Bonsteel claimed actually happens and the very little future events we have will go as planned. I understand that there are certain limits and restrictions put upon the type of activities that are approved but even then, the restrictions in place should not be stopping everything. Events can still take place, even in a limited form. However, there hasn’t been any school-wide events this semester that I can remember.
It’s not too late to make up for the loss of events. So far, students, such as the majority of the class of 2019, have very low expectations in regards to what’s going to happen next and hardly anyone is hyped.
It is time that Mr. Bonsteel stepped up his game and took real initiative being the leadership teacher because from here on out, it’ll only continue to go downhill if changes aren’t made.
“When I heard he (bonsteel) was gonna be the leadership teacher I thought it’d be great because I heard great stuff about him from his students but so far, all the outcomes have been disappointing,” stated senior, Joel Rivas.
The new change of teacher has been a factor to why students are slacking and not on top of their game. I was informed by students in the leadership class that the authority can be improved. There is a lot of immature and childish behavior that goes on during the third period yet others think it may be due to other reasons.
Senior Class President, Alejandro Huerta, commented, “I feel like this year has been different, not only for the seniors but the whole school. There’s been a lack of spirit; the teacher strike and new teachers have led to this.”
Honestly, I believe that the teacher strike did not affect the schools’ spirit because it wasn’t even there to begin with. The teacher’s strike did not occur until January so it does not add up to why there wasn’t any spirit since we started school in August of last year.
Beside Mr. Bonsteel, the students that are in that class are actually the ones that have the responsibility of planning events, but it’s pretty difficult to do so when they act like the class is just a hangout place. You can simply pass by room 42 and see students being unproductive.
“Some students are doing their job right while others aren’t; It seems as if they don’t care about anything. It’s really disorganized; the chemistry is bad, they don’t get along well. They have their own cliques within the class,” stated Anonymous Leadership Student
Damn, not to blame the whole class but it seems that not only is it viewed as a hangout place but it also seems to be drama central. Obviously, nothing can get done if the students aren’t collaborative with one another. Many students have to work on their differences and stop trying to act ‘petty’ because it doesn’t look good at all.
It also seems that another reason for the lack of school events is that the leadership class has been supposedly focusing mostly on the senior class and their events. Yet the whole class is broken down into different sections and as of what is known, the senior class president has the responsibility of the senior events. So what have the ASB representatives been doing this whole year?
“We have tried making events happen but most of the time they fall through. Either because we don’t have enough time to promote it, it doesn’t get approved by admin, students show no interest or just talk down on it. But with all honesty this year the leadership class just gets discouraged easily making them unmotivated to continue pushing for events or even creating new ones.” Stated Anonymous Senior Leadership Student
Although leadership claims to be working hard to get things done, there has been little to no signs of progress.
So who’s really the culprit here? It seems as if the blame is running in circles.
The lack of preparation is also leading to a lack of participation from seniors. It has been reported that only about 135 out of 297 have paid their senior dues as of March. A lot of those who have paid were thinking of getting a refund. This causes the remaining seniors to question if the packages are even worth paying. A lot of them are paying the events separately because not all the events are worth their money. This must be the saddest year since I began high school in 2015.
“The leadership class isn’t doing such a good job. The fundraisers haven’t been that great, we’ve only had 2. It’s so boring because nothing’s going on. The prom venue is also horrible.” -Anonymous Senior Student
So far we’ve only had homecoming which was in October and one spirit week this school year in December. Besides that, there hasn’t been any other school-wide event except for a “crazy sock” day on March 22, how fun. It was then changed to a spirit week just to make the school look good for WASC. I guess we should have WASC visit more often.
The only other event I’ve heard about was winter formal. But what happened to that you may ask? It was pushed back several times. It was rescheduled from December to February and was then rescheduled again and was going to be a spring fling dance in April. That idea also got canceled. How pathetic. Now there’s nothing at all nor will there probably be anything else.
Not only is the senior class concerned about their year but students from other grade levels are also a bit uneasy by the lack of announcements and information being provided.
“I feel worried that there haven’t been any fundraisers for the junior class. What will happen if there isn’t money for our senior year and we end up having our prom in the big gym? It’s gonna be hot and I’m going to be sweaty.”- Jimmy Garcia, junior.
Another student also commented on the lack of support for sports from the leadership class. Supposedly that was something Bonsteel had in mind to improve when he stated it in the feature the Spartan Shield did on him in September titled, “Return of the Leadership Teacher”
How’s that going? Really bad if you ask me or any other student, sheesh.
“I feel like more should’ve been done besides focusing on the senior class and football. Other sports like soccer don’t get enough recognition or support. Everything’s disorganized, they don’t make any announcements.” emphasized Rony Medrano, junior.
But then again, its possible leadership has been following a very inspirational Disney quote that is very close to people’s heart.
“DOING NOTHING OFTEN LEADS TO THE VERY BEST OF SOMETHING” – Winnie the Pooh
Maybe gradnite will be alright, right?
To wrap it up, the outcomes have been disheartening. I hope that this year’s pitiful leadership class was a wake-up call and painted a picture to the whole school as to what NOT to do in the future.
I know admin will agree with me when I say that more could be done.
Message to the underclassmen, it’s important to vote wisely for your ASB class representatives. Speak up for your class before y’all experience the same senior year as the magnificent Retros. Go Spartans!
By Angelisa, Editor