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Friday
March 29th, 2024
L&T Opinions Page

ashley kappelmann mugLETTER TO THE EDITOR, Ashley Kappelmann, LHS Principal

 

As we near the end of our first semester in our school redesign, I want to begin by thanking you all for your patience, encouragement, feedback, and support as we have taken on this unprecedented mission to ensure the success of each and every one of our students.

Upon graduation, we aspire for our students to be confident that they are equipped with the “Angry Red Advantage: A Plan, A Vision, and A Purpose” that will allow them to achieve far beyond their own expectations, despite any obstacles that may come their way. This project has included major components such as the change to a flex-mod schedule that both allows additional time for students to receive assistance on homework and devote time to work that they are passionate about and increases student responsibility and opportunities to be self-advocates. In addition, we are offering many new courses and have a stronger focus on teaching students employability and life skills as well as a solution-seeking mindset.

We knew that this type of change would not come without difficulty, and that has certainly been true; however, we have also already seen our staff, students, and community come together and assist in a variety of ways to continually make adjustments and face each challenge head-on. Thank you so very much to those who have reached out and have been an integral part of getting our project off of the ground. And, not to go unnoticed, thank you beyond measure to the Liberal High School staff who have tirelessly and passionately returned day after day to take the next steps to make LHS better for our students. It is humbling to think about how much time, effort, and care our staff is willing to pour out to our students each day.

That being said, please know that we are not “there” yet. We know that there is a great deal of work to be done and issues to be addressed before we feel like we have realized our vision. We will continue to assess our greatest needs, make tweaks and adjustments to our plan and operation, and implement more and better ways to provide the support our students and staff need as we transition.

In the meanwhile, I want to share with you that we are also seeing very positive results from the efforts that we have made. We have seen an increase in our student engagement according to our Gallup Student Engagement Poll results. We have welcomed multiple schools from across the state to see our students and staff in action. We have experienced a significant increase in student leadership throughout the school.

And, in the coming weeks, we will be sharing with the community several other examples from our staff and students of positive outcomes from the work that we have done so far.

Additionally, if you or a community group or organization would like the opportunity to be given a guided tour and see a student and staff panel, we welcome you to contact Ashley Prosser at the high school (620-604-1200) to arrange a time to come and visit us.

Again, thank you for your continued patience, encouragement, feedback, and support as we remain committed to improving daily in order to give our students our very best.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Reita Isaacs, Liberal

 

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