Students share ideas to improve schools

Water filters for the drinking fountains at Muldown Elementary, shower curtains in the boys locker rooms at the middle school and increasing the class offerings at the high school. These are just a few ideas Whitefish School District students have for improvements at their schools.

Select groups from each school have met with the school board and administrators during round table sessions designed to give students the chance to voice their ideas for possible changes in the district. One high school class and a group of sixth graders met with district representatives earlier this fall. Last week members of one fourth grade class took their turn.

“We have trustees and administrators who want to hear your ideas,” Superintendent Kate Orozco said. “The trustees will consider any reasonable idea. Some ideas might be too expensive right now, but we’ll look at all of them.”

The fourth graders in Shawn Lenzner’s class worked in groups to come up with an idea, researched it and created presentations they gave to small groups of district officials and parents.

One group asked for more field trips and suggested trips to an art museum and the O’Shaughnessy Center. Another group asked for at least one art class per week.

Students Nia Hanson and Hannah Kassner presented their ideas for why water filters should be installed in three of the water fountains at Muldown. They said the water tastes like “sweaty socks.”

They surveyed other students and found that most of them agree that the water doesn’t taste very good. They suggest that if filters were installed at fountains near the gymnasium, cafeteria and library then more students would drink water.

“We haven’t liked the water since kindergarten,” Nia said. “But we haven’t had a time to speak up.”

They did research and found that the water contains chlorine, which is used to clean the water but can make it taste not very good.

Students Tanner Harmon and Jon Bruce presented their plan for offering alternatives to the lunch served at the school. They said some kids are unhappy with the options that include the choice of the scheduled lunch, a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, or a chef salad.

They would like to see a salad bar installed that would give greater options while still providing a nutritious lunch. They suggested that in addition to standard salad the food served could include pretzels, fruit or cottage cheese.

“Kids don’t always like the lunch,” Tanner said. “If the kids don’t eat the food because they don’t enjoy it then they are unhappy and won’t get good grades.”

According to their online research, it would cost the school about $350 to install a salad bar. They also spoke with Muldown’s assistant principal John Coyne who suggested ways that the salad bar could be funded.

Orozco reminded the fourth graders that changes might take some time, but all ideas will be written down and explored.

“We might ask you to help us take on some of these ideas and solve how we do it,” Orozco said. “We do not want you to share your ideas and then for us to forget about them.”

During the October roundtable meeting, sixth graders asked for more color on school walls, bigger lockers and replacement of the fluorescent lights. One group asked to add shower curtains in the boys locker rooms.

Middle school principal Josh Branstetter said students worked with the physical education teacher and custodian to create a plan for installing shower curtains and then applied for a grant with the Parent Teacher Association to get funding to purchase the equipment, which should be installed soon.

The high school students offered a number of suggestions including a desire for smaller classes, longer class periods and increasing the number of hands-on learning projects for students.

Trustee Dave Fern said the school board often gets caught up with administrative matters.

“This is a reminder that if we don’t listen to our students we might be missing an important part of making the schools better,” he said.

The idea to host the roundtable nights came after one high school class asked to present their suggestions for changes.

“It made our conversation deepen about the schools,” Orozco said. “We need to pay attention to the students concerns and ideas so we expanded it to the other schools.”

Orozco noted that the project has classroom applications such as teaching students about civic engagement.

In the fourth grade class, Lenzner explained that the project was turned into a class lesson to teach students about persuasive writing, research on computers and how to give speeches.

“They were so motivated,” he said. “It gave meaning to the lesson because they were going to present to the school board.”