Urbana students tip their hats to "Angels with Heart"

Most students and staff will agree that one of the most popular spirit days during spirit week is Hat Day. This highly anticipated day allows people to break the no-hats-in-school rule for a day while showing off creativity and school spirit. Hat Day is also the spirit day that usually has the most school participation, as most students and staff jump at the idea of showing off a cool hat in school. Traditionally, Linganore’s Hat Day has always been a part of spirit week, as opposed to a stand-alone event.

However, Urbana High School traditionally holds their Hat Day separate from their spirit week, and the event is designed to raise money for a charity. This year’s charity, a family service and education organization called Angels with Heart, is dedicated to increasing the survival rate for a rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The event was held on Friday, April 11. Students paid a small participation fee of $2.00 to be able to wear their hats in school all day, and were given a sticker to be placed on their hats to show they had paid. As an added incentive, the person who wore the most creative hat would win a free gift card to Chipotle. Urbana student Karl Glang organized the “Hat Day” as his senior project.

“Hat Days have been done in the past at Urbana, and I thought it would be easy to get students to participate,” says Glang. “The events [in the past] were pretty successful, with at least a third of the school population participating.”

Angels with Heart was started by Karl’s aunt and uncle after their baby died of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, also known as HLHS. The syndrome occurs when the left side of a baby’s heart is not fully developed and thus cannot properly pump blood. Though HLHS is a rare syndrome, it is almost always fatal if not detected and treated immediately. The two methods of treatment are a full heart transplant with a donated heart, and a 3-part operation called “staged palliation.”

With all of the popularity Hat Day has received in the past at Linganore, there’s a good chance that students would take the idea of a Hat Day-for-charity in good light. Students would still get to wear their favorite hat all day, but they would just have to pay a couple dollars to wear it. For one day of the year, students could wear a hat in school for less than the price of a school lunch! If that still sounds too much money to be worth it, it definitely will be worth it when all of the money raised goes to charity.

Even though arch-rivals Linganore and Urbana usually try to be completely separate from each other, the idea of a Hat Day-for-charity might not be such a bad idea for Linganore to adopt in the future.

-CMitch

So what is SIT, anyway?

On the second Wednesday of each month, a small group of Linganore teachers, staff, students, and parents gather after school in the media center to discuss school policies, current local events, past and future school events, as well as updates on the construction of the new Oakdale High. This group, the School Improvement Team, or “SIT,” has been meeting each month since last June to discuss important school-related issues. Each meeting is conducted under standard parliamentary procedure.

At each meeting, reports from individual SIT committees are shared to bring other SIT members up to date on recent committee meetings. The seven committees are academic intervention,Renaissance/awards, parent involvement, annual events, professional development, grant writing, technology, and safety.

After the committee reports are shared, functional reports on various topics are handed out in the form of charts, lists, proposals, notes, etc. to be reviewed by all who are present at the meeting. Past functional reports have included HSA and AP test results. The team works together to help resolve or improve any issues the reports contain. For example, with the HSA scores, the SIT set specific goals of raising certain test scores and developed ways in which teachers could help their students achieve these goals.

The next part of the agenda is set aside to talk about “action items.” These are usually items that are either already in the works or about to be put in the works. One major action item that is focused on is the School Improvement Plan, or “SIP” for Linganore. This document details all of the plans and goals that Linganore has for its students and staff each year. Since this document is quite long and intricately detailed, all SIT members are given a copy of the current SIP and are asked to review the document, make suggestions, ask questions, and express any concerns they may have. The process of finalizing the SIP usually takes several meetings, because, just like the U.S. Constitution, it is a document that is made to apply to the changing times and meet the unique circumstances that each year brings.

Following the action items are the discussion items, which are usually concerns that students or staff may have that they would like to share with the SIT. During this time, we talk about various problems that may have arisen from current school policies or procedures. For example, in our November meeting, the issue of Club Day and the distribution of club passes was discussed. We talked about some of the problems and concerns teachers were having with creating and giving passes to students and the problem of students leaving for clubs even while they were ineligible to do so. We then brainstorm ways we can fix the discussion items or improve their circumstances.

One of the last items on the agenda in SIT meetings are “burning issues” in which any important functional or unresolved issues are resolved or fixed. For example, in our December meeting, the SIT was informed that only three people in the entire school had signed a certain petition relating to a Board of Education election rule. There usually are no written burning issues that appear on each meeting’s agenda, as there is no way to tell ahead of time what the SIT members in attendance will bring forward.

In my first year of serving on the SIT, I have learned a lot about all the hard and detailed work that goes on “behind the scenes” of the school. I can now see that I have previously taken for granted all the hard work our dedicated staff continuously puts in for the better of our school. I have met and become friends with teachers, staff members, and parents that I would never have gotten to know if I hadn’t served on the SIT. Serving on the team has also taught me leadership and responsibility skills, in addition to educating me about standard parliamentary procedure. I appreciate the fact that I am able to express my feelings and views as a student to a group of adults who care about my input and want to make the school a better place.

Though I personally enjoy being on the SIT, I can definitely say it is not for everyone. However, I would recommend joining the SIT or attending a meeting if you are a student, parent or “staffulty” member who wants to learn about what goes on behind the scenes, wishes to express an opinion about current school policies or procedures, or just wants to help make the school a better place.