Eddy's Moral High Ground Editorial
Lions' Lousy Leadership?
Edward Calkins '22 Editor-in-Chief
Everyone has their own view of how leadership should work. There will always be those who critique their superiors, but when the majority of those being led disagrees with the leader, it creates chaos.
SMOB BACKLASH
Some of the decisions in our schools cannot be altered because they are mandated by state and county policies; however, midterms and finals for the 2021-22 school year are up for debate. During the October 5th Board of Education meeting, the Board voted 5-3 to re-introduce midterms and finals after a year off due to COVID-19. The Student Member of the Board (SMOB), Peter Banyas, voted in favor of having midterms and finals.
In his statement prior to voting, he stated, “The biggest argument I’ve heard from students for why we should eliminate midterms is mental health. But I think we’ve conflated mental health with short term happiness and appeasement.” The downplay of mental health, which was the core of his campaign last year, was dismissive and contradictory.
Midterms and finals often require rote memorization of key terms and matching those with a definition on a 50 question multiple-choice test. This has no significance to the real world. Banyas also mentioned the impact they have on success in college. That is easy to say for a high-ranking, intelligent white male.
In reality, most students struggle, even in what Banyas calls the “Howard County bubble.” The multitude of activities, clubs, sports and high-level classes offered in our county opens the door for increased pressure and stress. In Banyas’s campaign he mentioned that he wanted to give students a platform to “talk with each other about anxiety, depression, loneliness, or challenges with school or life.” The thought is spot-on, but in a society where it is already hard to talk about our feelings, it makes it tremendously more difficult if our student representative doesn’t want to associate mental health with the stress of midterms and finals.
REDO POLICY
Speaking of Howard County policy, who else is confused with the redo policy? Confusion roamed the halls from the beginning for the year. I don’t understand why a new one was created. Before COVID-19, there wasn’t a general policy for the entire school, but over the summer, the administration created a school wide policy. Howard County Policy 8020, however, specifically identifies “opportunities” for students earning a D or E, and does not limit those opportunities to 3. The initial Howard High policy gives successful students an opportunity to increase their already-passing-grade, while students who are struggling only have 3 redos within a quarter; not to mention that no one wants to see or keep track of yet another Google Form. After the roar of confusion and outrage, the administration changed the redo policy for the second quarter. The final outcome is that teachers have the option of defining their own redo policies. Administration went from a firm directive to a hands-off approach, and by neglecting to create a school-wide redo policy (despite the amount of attention and time spent on this student need), letting down students and teachers alike.
HOMECOMING
Leadership was once again put on display during Homecoming week. A disorderly pep-rally, confusion at the dance, disintegrating spirit days and delayed PowderPuff game information truly highlighted the week. I will admit, it is hard to plan a week like Homecoming, but the backlash is understandable. The SGA took a chunk of the blame, but the disorganization wasn’t necessarily their fault. Executive Board President Nico Drummond describes, “I feel like there is a misunderstanding of the SGA’s role. We’re not just a planning board, we are a representative board. And the point of our organization is to funnel the opinions and voices of students upwards to the administration… because at the end of the day they are the ones making the decisions.” In fact, many of the SGA’s original plans were shut down by the administration.
For example, they wanted to have one or two classes sit on the visitor’s side bleachers during the pep-rally to help spread out students and limit exposure to COVID. With Homecoming dates planned by the administration late last year, spirit days were even harder to plan. Many students are very dedicated to school spirit and spend a decent amount of time and money on spirit days. While the administration’s decision to change “Wild West Monday” was understandable due to the conflict of Indeious people., it was made one school day before that Monday. One day. The teachers found out about the change the same time students found out, even though the days were finalized a week and a half earlier by the administration.
RACIAL ISSUES
Despite all these issues, the strength of Howard’s leadership problems were showcased best during a LionsTime town hall on September 24th, regarding the events that unfolded after a racially insensitive TikTok was released - at least that’s what the rest of the school (and I) thought. The BSU and ASA met with the administration beforehand to discuss plans. However, the event was a train wreck. From unused students’ opinions on index cards to the constant change in subjects to the administration, what was supposed to be a student-led event became confusion and chaos. To add to the chaos, Drummond says, “I found out about the town hall two days before, and I found out that I was involved in the town hall the morning of, right before second period.” The town hall was planned by the ASA and BSU, so one would think that they would be running the event. But the administration decided to take over - once again - and run things the way they wanted to.
In an interview hours after the rushed and forced event, Mr. Novak explained, “[It] wasn't just issues of race, but it’s about the culture of our school and the challenges coming back in a pandemic.... It is just the beginning, doing this in September, but we have a whole year of this.” I’m pretty sure, and correct me if I’m wrong, but the motive for the town hall was to try and talk out the problems facing students RIGHT NOW. If we wait until later in the year then the paperwork will continue to pile up, and not to mention things could look a lot different.
These issues aren’t breaking news, folks. It’s been happening for a while at Howard. The scary part is what happens behind-the-scenes where students can’t see. It seems the common denominator is the “because” factor. There needs to be transparency for why a decision is made. Our leaders need to communicate to us clearly and explain what factors they consider when making decisions that affect our school.
SMOB BACKLASH
Some of the decisions in our schools cannot be altered because they are mandated by state and county policies; however, midterms and finals for the 2021-22 school year are up for debate. During the October 5th Board of Education meeting, the Board voted 5-3 to re-introduce midterms and finals after a year off due to COVID-19. The Student Member of the Board (SMOB), Peter Banyas, voted in favor of having midterms and finals.
In his statement prior to voting, he stated, “The biggest argument I’ve heard from students for why we should eliminate midterms is mental health. But I think we’ve conflated mental health with short term happiness and appeasement.” The downplay of mental health, which was the core of his campaign last year, was dismissive and contradictory.
Midterms and finals often require rote memorization of key terms and matching those with a definition on a 50 question multiple-choice test. This has no significance to the real world. Banyas also mentioned the impact they have on success in college. That is easy to say for a high-ranking, intelligent white male.
In reality, most students struggle, even in what Banyas calls the “Howard County bubble.” The multitude of activities, clubs, sports and high-level classes offered in our county opens the door for increased pressure and stress. In Banyas’s campaign he mentioned that he wanted to give students a platform to “talk with each other about anxiety, depression, loneliness, or challenges with school or life.” The thought is spot-on, but in a society where it is already hard to talk about our feelings, it makes it tremendously more difficult if our student representative doesn’t want to associate mental health with the stress of midterms and finals.
REDO POLICY
Speaking of Howard County policy, who else is confused with the redo policy? Confusion roamed the halls from the beginning for the year. I don’t understand why a new one was created. Before COVID-19, there wasn’t a general policy for the entire school, but over the summer, the administration created a school wide policy. Howard County Policy 8020, however, specifically identifies “opportunities” for students earning a D or E, and does not limit those opportunities to 3. The initial Howard High policy gives successful students an opportunity to increase their already-passing-grade, while students who are struggling only have 3 redos within a quarter; not to mention that no one wants to see or keep track of yet another Google Form. After the roar of confusion and outrage, the administration changed the redo policy for the second quarter. The final outcome is that teachers have the option of defining their own redo policies. Administration went from a firm directive to a hands-off approach, and by neglecting to create a school-wide redo policy (despite the amount of attention and time spent on this student need), letting down students and teachers alike.
HOMECOMING
Leadership was once again put on display during Homecoming week. A disorderly pep-rally, confusion at the dance, disintegrating spirit days and delayed PowderPuff game information truly highlighted the week. I will admit, it is hard to plan a week like Homecoming, but the backlash is understandable. The SGA took a chunk of the blame, but the disorganization wasn’t necessarily their fault. Executive Board President Nico Drummond describes, “I feel like there is a misunderstanding of the SGA’s role. We’re not just a planning board, we are a representative board. And the point of our organization is to funnel the opinions and voices of students upwards to the administration… because at the end of the day they are the ones making the decisions.” In fact, many of the SGA’s original plans were shut down by the administration.
For example, they wanted to have one or two classes sit on the visitor’s side bleachers during the pep-rally to help spread out students and limit exposure to COVID. With Homecoming dates planned by the administration late last year, spirit days were even harder to plan. Many students are very dedicated to school spirit and spend a decent amount of time and money on spirit days. While the administration’s decision to change “Wild West Monday” was understandable due to the conflict of Indeious people., it was made one school day before that Monday. One day. The teachers found out about the change the same time students found out, even though the days were finalized a week and a half earlier by the administration.
RACIAL ISSUES
Despite all these issues, the strength of Howard’s leadership problems were showcased best during a LionsTime town hall on September 24th, regarding the events that unfolded after a racially insensitive TikTok was released - at least that’s what the rest of the school (and I) thought. The BSU and ASA met with the administration beforehand to discuss plans. However, the event was a train wreck. From unused students’ opinions on index cards to the constant change in subjects to the administration, what was supposed to be a student-led event became confusion and chaos. To add to the chaos, Drummond says, “I found out about the town hall two days before, and I found out that I was involved in the town hall the morning of, right before second period.” The town hall was planned by the ASA and BSU, so one would think that they would be running the event. But the administration decided to take over - once again - and run things the way they wanted to.
In an interview hours after the rushed and forced event, Mr. Novak explained, “[It] wasn't just issues of race, but it’s about the culture of our school and the challenges coming back in a pandemic.... It is just the beginning, doing this in September, but we have a whole year of this.” I’m pretty sure, and correct me if I’m wrong, but the motive for the town hall was to try and talk out the problems facing students RIGHT NOW. If we wait until later in the year then the paperwork will continue to pile up, and not to mention things could look a lot different.
These issues aren’t breaking news, folks. It’s been happening for a while at Howard. The scary part is what happens behind-the-scenes where students can’t see. It seems the common denominator is the “because” factor. There needs to be transparency for why a decision is made. Our leaders need to communicate to us clearly and explain what factors they consider when making decisions that affect our school.