The Spartan administration is making friends by taking students out to lunch.
At the beginning of October, Principal Michael Mukai and class administrators met with students from each grade during their lunch block. Mukai has subsequently lunched with other groups, including seniors on the field hockey team who were heading into a big game.
“We want to give [students] an opportunity to talk about the school and discuss anything and everything about it,” said Mukai. “This is an informal thing we thought [students] would enjoy.”
Administration plans to hold lunches for students in every grade about once a quarter. They randomly select students and invite them to have lunch, hearing from the students directly while providing them with a good meal.
The Principal’s Conference Room was filled with pizza and kabobs when students walked in. to a lunch meeting October 2. Hesitantly, students piled pizza on their plates, snatched a drink out of the cooler, then slowly took a seat.
“Really, what I was thinking was that it was awesome that the administration would do that for us,” said senior Frankie Marty. “I had never thought I would ever be randomly selected for something like this.”
After the initial awkwardness and an opening from Mukai and the other administrators, students began to talk about problems with the school. On topics ranging from Spartan Time to a senior class gift, students got to share their opinions and suggestions in a relaxed and positive atmosphere.
“I was really surprised when Mukai brought up the possibility of no grades because I didn’t think it was on the minds of anyone there,” said Marty. “I feel like all of the students there were interested and surprised that they would have input to make bigger changes in the school.”
Students voiced questions and concerns about Mukai’s plan to eliminate grades and replace them with standards. The group talked about having the state or FCPS create tests for students instead of teachers and how the plan would affect college admissions.
“I think it would be a lengthy process to execute but that there are better ways to measure students’ performance than grades,” said Marty. “Ways that could potentially eliminate the stresses on students caused by grades.”
As their plates started to empty, students took a hiatus to refill them and then continued the discussion. Moving on to more personal topics, the administrators asked students about how active they were in the school. Each student was able have a casual, relaxed conversation about what is important to them.
When time and food ran out, students thanked admin for the food, and the meeting closed on a positive note of encouragement.
“It’s your school. We want to hear what you have to say, good, bad, and negative,” said Assistant Principal Shannon Matheny.