TAHS on school climate

By Rhett Everhart

School climate is the quality and the character of a school through the eyes of students and teachers.

At TAHS, Mr. McNitt is the chairman of the school climate committee.

The school climate committee is in charge of administering the climate surveys the students take twice a year, and improving school climate. The climate surveys were administered in December 2010 and December 2011.

The goal of the climate survey given to the students is to collect information from the students about issues in the school to provide a higher quality environment for learning and to make sure students feel safe.

“It makes me feel good that the school cares enough to check these surveys, but sometimes it feels like the school lets bullying slide,” Gared Dixon, freshman, said.

Once information is gathered by this survey the information is given to teachers to help them better understand what students are dealing with and how to help students learn more efficiently.

“Even though the school gives these surveys, I don’t see a difference at all in bullying. I never see the school enforcing the bullying rules, even if they do care,” Kayla Barony, senior, said.

Last year’s results of the TAHS climate survey state that 90% of the student body feels safe at school and 52% of the student body can see value in accepting differences in other students.

The goal of teacher appreciation at TASD is to make teachers feel good about the work they do with students and just a thank you for their hard work.

Events that go on for teacher appreciation are a monthly birthday party for the teachers as well as a “Festive Table” event. During every month of the year there is a small celebration for the teachers that were born in each month. This celebration consists of a birthday cake and decorations, usually in one of the teachers lounges, for the teachers who have birthdays in that month.

The “Festive Table” event took place mid-December in the library conference room. At this event staff brings in a wide range of different foods for an all day celebration, for the hard work of the teachers.

Also a goal of the climate committee is to make students feel safe and welcome in school.

A step in doing this is door greeters in the morning while students enter the school.

Organized by Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Pinter, along with the climate committee, teachers create teams to greet students in the morning by saying “good morning”, complimenting their outfits, asking how their night was, and wishing them good luck at upcoming games when they come into school.

“It’s good to know that the teachers care enough to try and give us a good start to our day,” Dixon said.

The hopes of this are to help students and teachers get a positive start to their day.

“I definitely think that getting the results of these surveys and all the school climate committee’s efforts will help and, yes I think that the school climate has improved over the past few years and will continue to improve in years to come,” Mr. Cammarata, climate committee member, said.