While many policies, such as the new parking system, the use of 5-Star, the mandated lanyards and the dumping out of drinks when a student arrives at school late are new this year, some procedures that may feel new are simply being more enforced.
The 5-Star system requires students to scan out of the classroom with their ID for a pass to their destination. The program monitors both the number of passes a student uses each day and how many students are in the hallways at a time. Each student gets five passes per day, and only 15 students can be out of class at any given time.
“The bathroom pass, I feel, is pretty valid,” senior Mylee Crosby said. “Last year, there were a bunch of people that were in there all the time, doing whatever, like 20-minute bathroom breaks.”
The limited time students can spend out of the classroom also increases the amount of time that they will be in the classroom learning.
Another purpose of 5-Star is the point system. This is designed to give points to students for good behavior and attendance at school events. These points are redeemable for different rewards, which include candy, Kaneland gear and discounts on dance tickets or parking passes.
“The biggest thing for me with 5-Star and focusing on tardies is actually to recognize and showcase all the great choices we have students making,” Principal Melinda Cattell said. “We have a lot of students who are making amazing choices and doing great things, and I think they deserve to be recognized.”
Along with the addition of the 5-Star system, Kaneland students have been asked to wear lanyards with their IDs this year. This is a change from past years when students were only required to carry their IDs.
“In terms of just having the ID on them, I think it is very common in a lot of school buildings,” Dean of Students Steven Lucas said.
Lanyards with clearly displayed IDs help security staff ensure that everyone is where they need to be.
“I don’t like the lanyards because I personally can’t keep track of mine,” senior Charlie Nordell said. “I’ve lost mine four times already, but I don’t need it because I can just use my ID [number].”
Despite the administration’s logical intentions, it is hard to ensure that every student wears their lanyard every second of the day. Some students do not wear their lanyard at all, and others even claim to have already lost theirs. Administrators and members of school security have started giving out candy or points on 5-Star to students who are wearing their lanyard in the hallways.
Another change this year is the parking system. Last year, students were assigned a designated parking spot to use each day. This year, students may change where they park, as long as they stay in the student section of the lot.
“The biggest reason is that we were losing a lot of time and resources as far as our School Resource Officer (SRO) and our dean,” Cattell said. “We were using them in a capacity that is probably not the best use of time. And the fact is that students every single day would park in the wrong spot.”
In short, the system was not working the way it should have been and only caused more chaos. Issues such as car accidents and people parking in the wrong place were not resolved by the previous system.
Another change to encourage students to arrive on time is Cattell or main office staff dumping out students’ purchased drinks if they are late to their first class. This idea has been controversial among students.
“[I] bought the drink, so why should I dump it if I’m late?” senior Gloria Caraus said.
While it can be frustrating from the students’ perspective, Cattell reports that there have been fewer tardies after the implementation of this policy. Teachers have also noticed a positive change in attendance.
“No one has said much in terms of feedback, but in terms of body language, [students] are going to the bathroom quicker, [students] are understanding more in class and [students] are doing more homework in class because [they] do not have those distractions,” math teacher Alyssa Thurman said.
In addition to fewer tardies, phone usage has also been prohibited. Students are no longer allowed to take their phones to the restrooms or into the hallways. This limits the amount of time that students are spending in the halls and prevents distractions. While this was technically a rule last year, it was rarely enforced.
“I do not know what happened previously to me, of course,” Lucas said. “I wasn’t here, but from what I know or what I’ve heard, some things were not enforced as hard as others. I think that’s where the mindset is. ‘Oh, there’s all these new rules,’ but in reality, they’re just being enforced now.”
