The Clarke Central High School administrative team hosts a meeting in the lecture hall on Sept. 26 as the first of a series of meetings with students called “Champion Chats”. The first meeting was attended by four students, and the most recent meeting on Oct. 10 was attended by three students. “Having teachers announce it would be the most direct way to communicate about (‘Champion Chats’),” junior Isabella DeMarco said. “I think it’s great that (‘Champion Chats’) are out there but really I think it was an information thing. I don’t think people knew about it.” Photo by Ana Aldridge.
The Clarke Central High School administrators held their second “Champion Chat” with juniors on Oct. 10 in the Lecture Hall with a total of three juniors in attendance.
The Clarke Central High School administrative team is holding a series of meetings, called Champion Chats, to gain feedback from students about improvements that can be made to CCHS.
The Champion Chats are held separately for each grade level by CCHS Principal Marie Yuran, Associate Principal Amanda Gorham, Assistant Principal Sheila Dunham and Assistant Principal Reginald Thomas. The meeting for juniors took place in the morning of Oct. 10 in the Lecture Hall.
“I think we talked about a lot of the things we administrator’s had questions about,” Yuran said. “Even though it was a small group, the message got to some folks that this was a place for your voice to be heard and some of the topics brought up could be pretty vulnerable for them and I’m excited that they were willing to have that dialogue.”
The first Champion Chat was held for CCHS seniors on Sept. 26 with a total of four students in attendance, and the junior meeting had an attendance of three students. Junior Andrea Aramburo did not know that the “Champion Chats” were taking place.
“I know there’s a lot of kids that would want to tell people about how they felt about certain situations at school,” Aramburo said. “I would totally tell my administrators about things I have problems with at school. If I knew it was happening, I would go.”
Despite the low attendance Yuran believes that the meeting was productive, with topics from field trips to slurs against LGBT students being discussed.
“We’re here to build an environment where (students) feel like their needs are being met, “ Yuran said. “We’re going to keep at it because I think if it makes space for just one or two (students), that’s better than none.”
For the students who did attend, the meeting was beneficial.
“It definitely felt like we were being listened to and treated as people by the administrators and it was a constructive experience. I would definitely recommend going to (other students),” junior Lucas Parker said.
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