Doran discusses Homecoming change

The decision that came down from the student council happened very quickly this year. Usually, we have at least until the end of September, a couple weeks into October: 100% my fault not to communicate that the second the student body notified me.”

Hastings High School Principal Scott Doran

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the District 200 School Board hosted its third Community Collaboration Committee meeting at Hastings High School discussing the newly adopted “I LOVE U GUYS” standard response protocol (SRP), the district’s new cell phone policy, the upcoming School Perception Survey and to answer questions from community members.

I LOVE U GUYS Standard Response Protocol
The Community Collaboration Committee is a newly revamped committee from ISD 200 this year intended to provide a more open avenue for community members to interact with school board members and district administration outside of regularly scheduled school board meetings. While Community Collaboration Committee meetings have agendas and presentations about what is currently happening at the district, they are also designed as a way for community members to have their questions answered in an open public forum.
The key topic discussed at the meeting was the district’s adoption of the “I LOVE U GUYS” SRP for school emergencies ranging from a bloody nose to a fire to an active shooter. This new protocol lays out several levels of actions ranging from a hold, where students are cleared from hallways but educational programs are not disrupted, to evacuations to sheltering in place.
Hastings Middle School Principal Ryan Wynn spoke to the utility of these layers of protocols at the meeting. Since the beginning of the school year, the middle school has already used the hold protocol twice, including the morning of the meeting. The hold protocol is meant to address issues of hygiene, privacy, or health like vomit in a hallway, hallway maintenance, or a bloody nose. Creating established protocols for these occurrences allows less disruption of class time and more student privacy for health issues. Parents and guardians will not be notified of the use of the hold protocol because it is meant to handle these normal occurrences.
“When I did it today, I went right into morning announcements because it was business as usual,” said Wynn.
Director of Facilities and Safety Scott Stockdale who presented about the new SRP spoke to the importance that each term is distinct. “A lockdown is a lockdown,” said Stockdale. Unlike other SRPs, there are not levels of lockdowns or codes or colors. Each term refers to a different protocol for a different situation.

Cell phone policy
Several principals also discussed how the district’s cell phone policy has played out during the first few weeks of the school year. The policy, whose adoption was mandated as part of the READ Act which was passed by the Minnesota State Legislature in 2023, bans student’s use of cell phones during instructional times and creates a framework for working with students and parents if cell phones become an issue for a student. Both Hastings High School Principal Scott Doran and Wynn praised the change and the parent support they have seen surrounding the policy.
“Every phone call I’ve had has been very positive,” said Wynn.

School surveys
School surveys are a key avenue for school districts and the schools that compose them to gather data from students, staff and parents in order to identify issues and make changes. Surveys from the use of student planners to mental health to sleep quality are standard practice across districts.
The upcoming 2024 School Perception Survey, which is expected to be given to students, staff and parents in mid-October was discussed at the meeting. The survey is not yet finalized with the full list of questions expected to be completed by Sept. 26, followed by an email sent out to staff, students and parents on Oct. 7 concerning the survey.
Student surveys have increasingly become another battleground for districts. Similar to data requests, what was once a usual bureaucratic function has become a point of focus and consternation.
Because of this increased focus on student surveys, several changes to the rules regarding student surveys in the district which were discussed at the Sept. 10 work session were not voted on and pushed back “so that we could have more discussion on them,” said Director Philip Biermaier.
All surveys in the district are made public before being given to students, staff and parents and can be found on the district’s website under the “School Surveys” tab. Students are able to refuse to take surveys, and parents are able to opt their students out of surveys by filling out a form found on the district’s website.
“Any survey that I received from staff or the district is listed a minimum of I think a couple of weeks prior to issuing that to the kids under the current opt-out system,” said Doran at the meeting.
Examples of questions for the 2023-2024 School Perception Survey include asking students to rate how they feel on statements like “I feel safe at school,” “I have friends to sit with at lunch or hang out with at school,” and “Most kids at school follow the rules.”

Meeting discussion
The Community Collaboration Committee was designed to function as an open forum for community members who are explicitly unable to converse with school board members during regular school board meetings, only able to speak before them during public comment often without a response from the board.
Due to this structure, community members at the meeting were able to ask questions of principals, school board members and administration about topics not on the agenda including the recent changes to homecoming and increased school security via security cameras.
The changes to the structure of the high school homecoming arrived via a letter to students, parents, and community members on Sept. 9, a week before the event was set to take place. The changes came from the high school student council to remove the homecoming king and queen and in their place crown a single student as “Raider crown winner.”
The letter explains this change describing the intent as, “to facilitate a process that is representative of all students at HHS, and to ensure balanced representation of students without requiring them to participate with a partner.”
This change to homecoming comes after a previous change to the structure of pep fests last year where rather than group students by couple, which was cited by students as uncomfortable, to have the selected students be walked by a “person of influence” in their life. The person of influence could be a parent, guardian, or other significant figure in a student’s life who walk with them during pep fests before the student body. According to Doran, the change to homecoming this year to crown a single student rather than a couple was built in part off of that decision.
“A number of people are not comfortable being a forced couple in front of the public body, their student body and parents that are invited, so that’s one way they can address that,” said Doran at the meeting.
According to Doran, this decision from the student council was “a building decision,” and as such didn’t require oversight from the school board who were in large part not informed of the change until the letter on Sept. 9.
As to the timing of the change, which was made public a week before the beginning of homecoming, Doran cited the quick decision coming from the student council as well as the early timing of homecoming this year.
“The decision that came down from the student council happened very quickly this year. Usually, we have at least until the end of September, a couple weeks into October: 100% my fault not to communicate that the second the student body notified me,” Doran said.
Other issues discussed at the meeting included the extensive expansion of security cameras within district 200 schools. Principals cited the increased security cameras in schools as way to confirm what really happened during disputes between students and avoid escalating a situation that doesn’t need to be. While staff don’t consistently monitor cameras in real time as a preventative measure, the fact that students can be held more responsible for their actions due to the existence of security footage was cited as a preventative measure unto itself.