RE-1 student leaders give insight to COVID-19 impact

SHS, CHS students voice concern over loss of activities, socialization with classmates

Members of the newly formed RE-1 Valley School District Student Leadership Advisory Committee gave insight into some of the things students are struggling with amidst the COVID-19 health crisis during a regular school board meeting Thursday.

Formed by Superintendent Shila Adolf, the SLAC has 35 members from both Sterling and Caliche High Schools, including the president and vice president of each class, students that Adolf has interacted with that she asked to be involved and students identified by school staf f who don’t necessarily have a leadership designation within their school but who they feel show leadership qualities.

The SLAC’S motto is Root Locally, Live Globally. “It’s an idea of, can we get the kids to be ver y proud and prideful and suppor tive of their hometown and their home experience, but also build their capacity to be aware of jobs, places they could go, different things they can do that’s more of a global experience for them,” Adolf said.

The purpose of the committee is to promote citizenship through student governance both through local leadership and state advocacy. The student leaders will strive to demonstrate effective leadership in their classes and school by gaining an understanding of governance while investing time and energy in local and state leadership.

The SLAC will meet with local leaders such as the Board of Logan County Commissioners, as well as state leaders including Senator Jerry Sonnenberg and Senator Tammy Story, who will become the chair of the Senate Education Committee following the Nov. 3 election, and advocate for rural Colorado. Adolf also plans to have the student leaders do things like watch district cour t and meet with officials from the Logan County Department of Human Services, Logan County Chamber of Commerce, etc.

SLAC members at Thursday

night’s school board meeting included: Sydney Henry, a junior at SHS; Karleigh Baxter, also a junior at SHS; Hailey Fehringer, a senior at SHS; Allie Schumacher, also a senior at SHS; Aden Young, a sophomore at CHS; and Orran Adolf, a freshman at CHS. They were asked to share their thoughts on how things are going this school year.

“I think our biggest concern is we’re not getting the full aspect of our high school years. A lot of things have been taken away from us, like football games. Right now we have no school spirit anymore,” one of the SHS students said.

While the student council is working on activities to try to bring back some school spirit to SHS, the students voiced frustration at seeing other schools, such as those in nearby Nebraska, where students are able to go to football games and have a homecoming dance.

Fehringer said she only has one class at SHS and the rest of the time she is attending classes at Northeastern Junior College, so football games and other athletic activities were the only time that she really got to see her friends. Not being able to see them has been hard for her.

The student leaders shared that at SHS students tailgate on the outside of the field and are all together with no masks on. They said if they were allowed into the stands they would wear masks and social distance.

“But, you’re going to star t leading the way in modeling masking, right?” Adolf asked the students.

“Yes, we’re tr ying to wear them outside of school and show everybody that if we do our part then we can get that par t back,” the students responded.

The SHS students also pointed out that because they have to stay with their cohort all day and aren’t able to mix, they are not able to see any of their classmates in other grade levels, which is unfortunate, because building those relationships is important.

“I think it’s really critical for the younger kids to get to know the upperclassmen; it’s just part of your high school experience,” one student said.

“I also feel like as upperclassmen, knowing those younger classmen is just as important, because we’re supposed to be their role models,” another student agreed, adding that “it’s hard to be a leader when you’re not around the people that you want to be leading.”

The student leaders said they have talked to some freshmen students and they are upset with how things are going, because they “don’t get to actually know the school, because they’re in one classroom every day.”

“These are the years we’re supposed to remember forever and I don’t want to remember it like this and I feel like we aren’t even allowed to be kids anymore,” one student said.

The students also pointed out that it has been a struggle not having any extracurricular activities to take par t in after school. RE-1 is working to be able to star t having things like band and choir again and has ordered special protective equipment to make that happen.

When asked if they would be upset if all the things they talked about cannot be changed, the students told the board they understand there are some things the district can’t do, but they also said “at some point we have to go back to normal; we can’t make this our new normal.”

Following remarks by the SHS students, Young spoke about his experience competing in the 2020 Folkstyle Tour of American National Club Duals in Dells, Wisconsin, earlier this month.

“Probably the coolest thing about it was just getting to go and meet all the new people,” he said about the wrestling tournament, adding that he enjoyed it even though precautions had to be taken with masking and social distancing. Since there were no spring spor ts for him to par ticipate in it was nice to be able to get back into athletics again.

Young also brought up a concern that SHS football players were saying they didn’t have to wear full face masks, which Caliche students have been doing and it made them upset to think they would have different restrictions placed on them than SHS students. Adolf made it clear the SHS players aren’t allowed to not mask and it was not something the board approved.

At the conclusion of the students remarks, Orran Adolf led the board in an activity the SLAC did to learn about leadership. The activity demonstrated that even though you may not like everyone on the team, you still come together, tr y to be as ef ficient as possible and be willing to compromise, so that you can tr y to solve problems and reach your goal.

Board member Jennifer Ogley responded to the students’ concerns, telling them, “I just want you guys to know we really are listening and we really hear your concerns, this is not what we want to be our new normal either and it is incredibly sad and disappointing that this is the way things are right now, and we’re doing our best to navigate them and tr y to do whatever can.”

She shared that she is concerned about the mental health of all students right now, as even adults are struggling with what’s going on, and encouraged the student leaders to check in with their classmates and make sure they’re okay and if there is something alarming let someone know.

“That’s my biggest concern with all of these activities and socialization and everything being taken away,” Ogley said. “This isn’t what anybody’s high school year should look like, but it’s where we’re at right now.”