Lillie Weiser
OHS Journalism
The school year has just begun, and with a new year, there are many new aspects: new classes, new rules, new teachers, new teams, new classmates, new opportunities, but for this year in particular, new administrators. Last spring, the students were interviewed to find what qualities they thought that an administrator needed to possess. The community also had input at the board meeting that week, as well. After a long deciding period, they landed on Mr. Sixbury and Dr. Wilson. The community plays an important role in the school environment. Mr. Sixbury said, “the biggest thing the community can do to help the school environment is be open to change. If the community is not pleased with the current environment in the school, then that naturally means that something needs to change to make improvements. Change is never easy but the more willing everyone can be to making a change, the more likely that change is to be successful. After all, as Albert Einstein said, ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’”
With Mr. Sixbury in place as the 6-12 Principal and Activities Director and Dr. Wilson in place as the superintendent, the year has been sailing along smoothly. Game and activity schedules have been finalized, classrooms have been visited, and students have been met (by Dr. Wilson while she talks to students during lunch and Mr. Sixbury during his favorite time of the day: passing periods). According to a small demographic, many of the students enjoy these short meetings and they make each student feel heard.
Within the high school, allowance of student voices/opinions are a vital part of the success and unity of the school. When asked how she would acquire students’ ideas, voices, and opinions for decisions concerning campus life for students, Dr. Wilson replied with, “It takes the voices of many including students to establish the vision,” and “I plan to establish a Superintendent Student Advisory Team to get feedback and gather perspective. At the end of the day, all the decisions and things we do are so students can learn and be productive after graduation, their voices and opinions are important.”
The administrators have been very involved so far, and they are excited to support upcoming events. Mr. Sixbury said, “I am a little biased towards track and scholars bowl as those are the two activities that I coached at my previous school. However, I am hoping for all of our programs to be successful and will do what I can to help make that happen.”