ASBeasting for Improvement

SUSANNA AIGA
TINA CHEN
Opinions Editors

Who are all these yellow-shirted students on campus? Like their predecessors, 2013’s Associated Student Body (ASB) has continued to work toward improving student and faculty involvement every year, striving to create the perfect school environment where everyone would bleed blue and gold.

Each year, we ask ASB the same questions, and this school year is no different. What is ASB planning to do and will the plans improve one’s high school experience?

As ASB, their main goal is to represent the student body to the best of their abilities. Efforts to establish proper representation of the student body has been reflected in all of ASB’s recent changes. Last year, assistant positions were created for commissioners and directors. With the increase of members in ASB, they hope to provide a wider representation of the student body.

Currently, ASB’s primary focus is to improve communication between faculty, parents and students since informed students would naturally increase their involvement in school, at least in theory. This year, ASB has replaced the old school website with a new one, designed to be accessible for all students and parents. Though not filled with overflowing amount of content and updates, www.ahsmoors.org is more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate.

Additionally, ASB began a High School 101 orientation for freshmen, designed to simultaneously inform and welcome them to the school. As upperclassmen, we were once the same nervous freshmen who entered high school in fear of change or, worse, being “pennied”. However, the event was a welcoming sight that helped reassure the freshmen that our school is their school too.

Unlike previous years, important updates were told by either homeroom teachers or by word of mouth, but this system not only became a burden for the teachers, it became a system that was entirely ignored. The push for a more accessible bulletin became apparent last year as teachers were strongly encouraged to read the bulletin to their respective homeroom classes.

To solve this issue, ASB has begun implementing a video bulletin. Though well intentioned, video bulletins, while perhaps more entertaining, do not appear to be any efficient than last year’s system. Some teachers have reported that they cannot play the videos and other students have not been able to access them via the Student Portal either.
As usual, the expectations students place on ASB are high, but improving our school is really only achievable with full cooperation. ASB cannot do it alone. What we can do as students of AHS is by participating in school events, be it fund-raisers for clubs or just attending “Blue and Gold Fridays” located at the quad. It is your high school experience; make it count.

As long as we keep our minds open to ASB’s efforts and appreciate their willingness to make our experience in high school a positive one, anything is possible.