LIST OF ISSUES
NUTRITION
Baldev Desai believes that health and nutrition should be better promoted in schools. He has proposed healthier, tastier foods in the lunch line to promote the health of students. Healthy vending machines can sell nutritious items that are readily accessible, but nutritious as well. Another of Desai’s implementations would be that of a smoothie machine, which would provide students with another way to get daily servings of fruit.
AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
Baldev believes that extracurricular activities should be encouraged in school to allow students to learn new skills for the future. He would like to make students more aware of the benefits of joining clubs and sports. He would also like to lower the fees for the membership of certain clubs, giving opportunity to more students to join these clubs. This would allow students to have these extracurricular activities on their college résumés, leading to a brighter future.
SCHEDULES
Baldev has determined that Highland School schedules are well suited for our school in their current arrangement. Shortening the classes would cause less time for teacher instruction, most likely leading to more homework for students and less comprehension of school subjects. This could cause lower student performance and increased teacher and student stress. In addition, the decision to make classes year-round would result in increased work and the removal of a summer break, therefore again causing lower grades and higher stress levels.
DRESS CODE
Baldev Desai thinks that dress code is fairly lenient and, therefore, does not require any changes. It is true that many other schools, both in and outside of our nation, have much harsher dress codes than what we see in our school. Baldev has decided that our current dress code prevent distractions in the classroom while still being reasonable.
CLASS REQUIREMENTS
Baldev has decided that class requirements for the freshman lottery for future years should be increased from a “C” overall average to a “B” overall average. This encourages school achievement while also being a reasonable increase for the students of our school. As for graduating class requirements, Baldev has decided that the current requirements are perfectly suitable. Baldev would also like to make MITA B an optional choice for students and also allow studetns to take classes outside of their pathway as electives. These two changes would increase the class options for all students.
SCHOOL FEES
Baldev believes that current school fees, such as expenses for locks, should remain as they are, as some students would not be able to afford rising prices. In addition, Baldev would like to make the expenses for clubs less expensive, allowing more students to be able to access these extracurricular activities. Another area Baldev would like to make changes in is in the school parking ticket price. Revenue from school parking tickets are an important source that can raise money for the school. Students with cars are much less likely to have financial problems, and, therefore, a $5 increase in the parking ticket charge should not negatively impact the financial status of students in any way.
FUNDING
In order to implement ideas, funds are always necessary. In order to fund the projects that Baldev would want to implement, he is deciding to create more fundraisers. This would include bake sales and selling flowers around Valentine’s Day, to give the students incentives to help their school. Simple fundraisers would not be a hassle and would be easy ways to gain the funds that are needed for various projects. Highland should also consider engaging students in collecting Box Tops, which is an easy way to gain funds without spending unneccessary money. Just like the Unfundraiser, collecting Box Tops can become a compitition as well.
PATHWAY ADDITIONS
Baldev believes that the addition of new pathways will gve students more specialized classes that relate to their pathway. Several that are being disscussed are both a computer programming and a law enforcement pathway, which will allow students who are interested in these two fields to gain understanding for their future careers. In both of these pathways, there will be an experimental elective class. If it is seen that a number of students are interested, then we can develop these pathways in the future.