The Story
Tripod survey results are back!
The what?
It’s like those awkward student surveys for your teachers when you basically gave them a Yelp review. The district randomly selected families from each school to answer questions about their student’s life once a week. The district collected responses for two years (including from 94 BHS families in 2017-2018, and 121 BHS families in 2018-2019), and has finally released the results.
So what were they?
There are three main results. Students are stressed (surprise!). Communication from the school isn’t great. And many parents are at a loss with helping their child with homework. We guess the IB curriculum is taxing for parents as well.
How is the district solving these?
There aren’t many solutions set in stone. At open house, BHS teachers suggested how often parents should check PowerSchool and the extent of involvement a parent should have depending on the child’s grade.
What about stress?
This one’s a little trickier because it’s not just from academics. This past school year about 51% of BHS families reported that the highest amount of stress their child endured was from negative interactions with other students. We guess we need to work on becoming one big family…
And for academic-related stress?
Last year, 80% of BHS respondents consistently said their child was at least “somewhat stressed” about their grades. Mood. Discussions on the amount of acceptable stress have surfaced (What?!), and solutions have been suggested. The word meditation has been thrown around a little bit. And pushing back the start time by at least half an hour was suggested. Yeah, we know! Sounds amazing. But it’s not going to happen, at least not any time soon. The reason? Athletics. Unless all other division one teams took the same initiative, athletes would be missing fourth block classes for away games, and possibly two blocks if they’re playing Keene. Freaking Keene.
And the other ones?
School board member Bill Kassler brought up reducing homework. And we’ve got to say, we’re definitely on board. Besides these two specific solutions for stress reduction, the focus has been on coping mechanisms. Mr. Fournier said it’s really up to the teachers to be mindful of it. He told us administrators were trained on how to deal with their own stress (including breathing techniques), and he’s looking to do the same for teachers. Then, they can all teach us how to deal with ours. So, we’re thinking this is going to take some time. But we are all for the less stressed teachers. Instead of apples, you can all give them stress balls.
What now?
The district will work on the three main areas. The survey will also start again so Mr. Fournier can see if any of their initiatives worked at the end of the year, specifically for stress and anxiety. And if you want to hear MORE about the survey results, Mr. Fournier put together a video with special effects and everything. We think this is the way to improve communication－a Mr. Fournier Youtube channel. This or staff-created memes.
The Runaway
The school board is definitely discussing how to solve these problems, but for now kids will probably still be late, strutting in with their Dunks, stressed about the ever growing Bedford workload, and putting in those hours to improve their grades, possibly with parental help.
What to say…
When you thought this summer was really, really boring…
Any scandals? Anything at all? No, just the slow continuation of one. In July, the school district submitted its response to the lawsuit filed by former Dean of Student Services, Zanna Blaney. Remember her? She’s suing the school district for wrongful termination, backing it up with what seem to be three major reasons. Blaney says she had permission from former superintendent Chip McGee, used freedom of speech because she’d taken a personal day, and limited her testimony to Kristie Torbick’s work experience at BHS. The district replied IDK about McGee’s role, and “haha no” to the statements about freedom of speech and her testimony. The district keeps track of every staff member’s personal days in a software system. So they know for sure whether it was a personal day or not. And Blaney didn’t ask for it to be a personal day until two weeks after the fact. Sadly, time machines like that don’t exist. The district also responded that while Blaney did talk about Torbick’s work experience, she gave her personal opinions too. As for McGee’s role, we’ve seen documents proving that he gave Blaney the nod. Now we were never sure how the heck parents got these documents, but they seem fairly legit. So we’re just confused. Very, very confused. Right now, we’re waiting for the next step from…somebody. The ball is in a court, but we’re not sure who’s. All we know is that we’re still in the pre-trial process. Don’t worry, you aren’t missing anything juicy. Though we have to say, thank God for liability insurance. If not for that, we don’t think we’d ever get that new turf.
When you’re now wondering what ever happened with the counseling department…
Speaking of Dean of Student Services, we have a new one! Lisa Jacques, a former BHS counselor, has taken over the position, and has wasted no time. One of her first major additions? Adventurelore! It’s essentially Cardigan for sophomores, except it’s on the turf, it’s one day, and you have actual bathrooms. So…it’s better than Cardigan. Students are playing games, getting to know different people, and sharing their perspecitives. Isn’t that sweet? It’s the replacement for Challenge Day. And, the most important thing Ms. Jacques has done so far? Brought in an (un)official comfort dog. Did we stutter? There’s a dog in the counseling office. And not a stuffed one. She’s for students who need, you know, comfort. They can take the dog into their counselor’s office if need be. We’re expecting an increase in anxiety this year, possibly a rise in the death of loved ones. The dog is a mini goldendoodle. But she has black fur…we may have a new task for biology classes. The dog is part of Ms. Jacques’ initiative to make the entire office more approachable, and to make sure all students feel comfortable coming in to get the support they need. You hear that? The dog doesn’t bite, and neither do any of the counselors.
When you’re trying to think of a reason to be happy summer’s over…
It’s football season, baby! Another season is upon us, which for most schools means a new team, and maybe, just maybe, a new coach. This one happens to bring not just a new coach, but a brand new to Bedford, fresh out of the box head coach, here to replace good old Stank. The fresh meat, our new wellness teacher, Zach Matthews, has never coached a Division 1 team. Gasp! He’s pretty happy to be taking on such a large and talented team, because his old school in Kearsarge had only about 550 students. So happy, in fact, that he is holding his new team to high expectations. And, he’s brought his own offensive strategy to the team. The real question is, will our precious football players be able to bring home the bacon under the new top dawg? After all, Mr. Matthews has no championships under his belt (cue Under Pressure), and doesn’t have the greatest record. We’re hoping for his sake, it was due to a lack of talent on his teams. Lucky for him, our football team members have given him a fairly positive review so far, which means that the wrath of the rabid Bedford football superfans will be kept at bay－for now. We’ll see how the team plays on Friday in their first home game.
When you’re determined to show some sort of school spirit…
It’s game time! The fall sports season has begun! Well, to be honest, it’s football season, and some other sports that we can’t remember are going on as well. We’ve created a fall sports guide telling you what’s what. Check it out!
Things to Know
Be there!!
Cancel all Friday night plans, because it’s the first home game of the season.
Just Thinking About RWLs…
A lot of clubs are starting this week! Just a reminder in case this is going to be the year you find out what Cubing Club actually does.