August 4, 2011 at 10:22 a.m.
Searching for more school spirit
RHS student council announces plan to raise attendance, encourage diversity
Searching for more school spirit
By Jonathan Bailey-
For that reason, members of the RHS student council came up with an idea to heighten school spirit, as well as to encourage students to participate in more diverse opportunities.
"In March, we were able to go to a leadership conference at [the University of Wisconsin-Madison], where we had to confront problems at our school," student council member Kayla Cook said. "One of the problems that we determined was a big deal was school spirit and lack of diversity.
"We see that people are separated by what they participate in and what they do and they don't really interact with other groups," she added. "We also saw that there was low attendance at things like swim meets, tennis (matches) and girls' soccer games. We really want to up the amount of people that go to these things."
On July 27, they unveiled a possible solution to both high school and middle school coaches. What they hope to be an answer to the current worries is a program where two teams/clubs combine to compete against other combined squads for points and an end-of-the-year trip.
Points can be earned by attending partnered teams games or tournaments, participating in social events as one collective group (i.e. game nights, team dinners or community service). There would also be special ways to earn points every month, such as picture of a whole team wearing the same color in October.
Teams would earn a higher amount of points based on the percentage of the team that participates in a given event. Captains from the teams/clubs of each pairing would be responsible for filling out point forms following the event.
Coaches would be responsible for submitting an official roster at the start of the school year, communicating with other coaches and encouraging team participation and giving reminders with a positive outlook.
In order to provide an incentive for paired teams/clubs to participate in the program, student council has proposed a day-long trip to the winning group. Options in their initial proposal were a Brewers' game, a trip to Noah's Ark or Mount Olympus.
Cook is confident that the idea can work in the School District of Rhinelander, especially considering where they adopted it from.
"We got this idea at the UW-Madison campus," Cook said. "They use this at their school for their school and their sports. We manipulated it to work for our school. We know it can work here. If it can work on a campus with 12,000 kids, it can work here."
Aaron Bowen, another member of student council, believes it will have a positive impact across the board in a just a few years' time.
"Once the initial walls are broken down, people will start liking each other," he said. "Attitudes will get better and the general atmosphere will be more positive. If this goes as planned, it will raise participation in sports, and that's good for everybody."
With the planned implementation of the idea less than a month away, there are still questions, primarily that of the program's name. At the July 27 meeting, members of the student council asked coaches for their thoughts on what to call it, adding that points would be given for the winning suggestion.
They were also asked to reconsider adding band and choir to the mix. Other coaches expressed concern with the initial pairings, which are only tentative and can be changed until the school year gets underway. It is also unknown on how it will be accepted by students.
"You take a look at what's happening with our school, especially with the success we had last year in the GNC. What great timing (for this program)," RHS activities director Charlie LaHam said. "Hopefully there is continued success and getting that support on board is big."
Funding for the program and the end-of -the-year trip got a major boost thanks to a $1,000 commitment from RHS principal Terry Fondow.
Halfway to their goal of $2,000, members of student council will be selling Hodag merchandise throughout the year. They will also be holding a car wash this Saturday and Sunday at the Burger King parking lot.
Comments:
You must login to comment.