Changes of Fergus High, Fall 2017

With Core/Flex having arrived in the third week of school, and one lunch having already started this year, students are forming their thoughts on the changes, and how they think they will turn out. Core/Flex is a program that gives students with a letter grade of a D or higher in all of their classes a free twenty-five minutes on school property, or a flex time. Meanwhile, students with a D- or F in a class are assigned time with that core teacher to pull their grade up.

Now that Fergus has had its first weeks of Core/Flex, students have shared their thoughts and opinions on it. Junior, Becky McKenna, said, “I think Core/Flex is very helpful, along with advisory. The one lunch, however, feels too crowded and congested. It could just be students having to get more used to it though.” When asked if she thought the school will benefit from these changes, she said, “I feel like, yes, the school has been benefitting, so far, from the changes.”

The IMPACT team which is a student and teacher run group that aids freshmen, has started off its first year in the school. IMPACT stands for Inspiring My Pears to Act Compassionately Towards Others. Senior Kaitlyn Anderson, who is part of the IMPACT team was interviewed as well; first, she was asked if she thought the improved Freshman Orientation of this year will truly help the freshman of this year. “I had input from my sister, who is a freshman, and she said it felt nice to have someone who wasn’t a teacher be able to show her around to her classes, locker, those kinds of things.” Afterwards, she answered with what she thought, in general, of the school’s changes since her previous time here, “I’ve only had one year here previous to now, but the dress code improvements definitely help.”

Freshmen English teacher, Mrs. Vallincourt, said this when asked what made the staff come up with the IMPACT group, she had this to say “A result from a student-wide survey last year told us that peer to peer relations were very weak. What we wanted to do as staff was to respond to that feedback as supportive to the students as well as supporting a sense of community for all of the students.” Mrs. Vallincourt was also asked what else the IMPACT team could do or be planning for the student community, she said “So while the IMPACT team has been responsible for the freshmen orientation, they have also been organizing and holding the recent club fairs. While nothing is set in stone, there have been ideas of events and activities such as movie nights where IMPACT student members will get together with freshmen and see a show; also group bowling.”

So, overall, the new programs for Fergus High definitely seem to be an improvement. Out of the two big changes that affect the school, Core/Flex seems to be the most personally helpful to the majority of students