By Tamsin Hurlbut
The Nov. 8 TPA board meeting presented a lot of important information concerning modes of communication for sports, a student delegate proposition, a family handbook modification and updates to the school calendar.
The board looked over the community survey sent to parents concerning the year-round school proposition. Year-round school means that Tempe Prep would start school in the middle of July and have two weeks each for Fall and Spring break.
If Tempe Prep moved to this schedule, the calendar would match Kyrene School District and Tempe Union School District. 42.4 percent of surveyed parents, 120 respondents, said they do not want TPA to be on the same calendar as other surrounding school districts;30.4 percent of parents, 86 respondents, said they do not care; 27.2 percent, 77 respondents, say they very strongly want the calendars to match.
Some parents, through the anonymous survey, said, “I …like the idea of shorter summer breaks, I have always felt they were too long” and, “The year-round calendar…creates additional hardships for childcare during the summer break…and limits summer employment.”On the other hand, some parents were opposed to this change. One parent said, “We strongly oppose this calendar and will consider removing our child from TPA if it is implemented.”
The board also amended the TPA Family Handbook to explicitly prohibit students from going off campus for lunch. The updated section of the handbook reads: “Students who drive themselves are NOT allowed to leave campus for lunch even with written permission from their parents/guardians.”
Molly Brizgys, who has two children who go to TPA, brought up concerns about the methods of communication for sports teams. She and other parents have concerns about the variability of the apps used for communication between coaches, parents and students. She also had concerns about the informality of the forms of communicating. Joe Cady, who is the middle school basketball coach, agreed. He said, “It is strange for coaches to be texting their athletes.” Molly requested that the school implements uniform modes of communication and standards for coaches to communicate for sports.
I also proposed the idea of a student delegate to the board. I got input from the student body and the board seemed open to the idea but brought up the concern that while some voices of students may be amplified, one student would not be able to reach the whole student body. Subsequently, Dr. Porter proposed the idea of a Headmaster’s advisory council.
To stay updated on current changes and events happening in the TPA community, make sure to attend board meetings. The next one is Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Evdokimo Auditorium.