Schools

SPFHS Students Show Off Their School

The PTA sponsored the tour.

Members of the public got the chance Thursday morning to learn all about the ins and outs of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.

The PTA Council sponsored a special student-led tour of the building as part of American Education Week. While anyone from the community was welcome to attend, the majority of participants were the moms and dads of 8th graders, curious to learn more about the school their children will soon be entering.

 The morning started off with an introduction by Principal David Heisey, who shared with the group facts about the school’s academic programs, extracurricular activities and expectations.

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Some of the more surprising notes to parents were the school’s new policies on electronic devices and IDs.

Starting this year, the high school allows students to make calls on their cell phones, text message or listen to their iPods between classes. Heisey stated that so far, the rule has been quite popular and successful, with students getting their technological fix when they can, instead of sneaking it in during class time.

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“Technology is changing while we sit here, so our expectations and polices are changing with it,” he said.

Students are also required this year to wear photo IDs on lanyards at all times while on school grounds. Each ID has its own barcode, which the school uses to scan in tardy students, assign lockers and organize groups in gym class.

“I envision using them for attendance in the future, where we have a mechanism to scan them in,” Heisey said.

Senior Morgan Puleo said that she’s noticed both of these new policies have a big impact on her fellow students’ behavior.

“I’ve noticed a big difference from this year to last year,” Puleo said, noting that discipline issues that were prevalent during the 2008-2009 school year seem to have been drastically reduced. 

Puleo, the state president for DECA, a student business group; executive board member of the Student Movement Against Cancer; and a leader in other organizations, was one of three students to guide parents around the building.

“The high school really does let you choose what you want to do,” she said, passing a row of classrooms for extracurricular classes, including pottery, TV production, weight lifting and automotive technology.

Puleo showed parents the different halls throughout the building, and some of its features, including a separate cafeteria for freshmen and two gymnasiums.

“It took me about a week to learn my way around,” Puleo said of navigating the building her first year. “But each year with new classes it’s like I’m a freshman all over again.”

While the building may seem like it's bursting at the seams with offerings, Heisey informed the parents that space really isn’t an issue at the high school.

“We have 1,500 students attending this year, and that’s been stable over the last several years,” he said. “We had about 1,000 when I started about a decade ago. We may bump up to 1,600 over the next two or three years, but then it will stabilize out. In the '70s, we had about 700-800 students per class, now it’s 400 to 500.”

Reflecting on the school’s opportunities is its theme this year: “The choice is yours. How will you show your greater role?”

“Each year I charge student leaders will helping me choose a theme that applies to all students, and we live by that every single day,” Heisey said. “Anytime I meet with students, I talk to them about academic programs—they are the heart of the school. But the soul of the school are the many things that happen outside the academic programs, and I tell students you have to take advantage of both.”


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