“If we can get a good message out to everybody that’s great, but even if some students take away a positive message and learn something from it, we have done our job and it’s worth every penny. You can’t put a price tag on supporting somebody with their mental health,” Superintendent Jeff Newton said.
Administration wants to hear the community’s opinions on assemblies and get student and teacher feedback. 82 students responded to a Sept. 13 poll on the Viking Saga account asking which assembly students preferred. 36 percent of students prefer a motivational speaking and mental health assembly while only 14 percent prefer the safe driving and science of drugs assemblies.
After assemblies, the hallways and classrooms are filled with chatter and opinions. Oftentimes people forget about the speaker after a week, but some make lasting impacts. But the main concern for many students and teachers was curiosity where the money was coming from, considering the district challenges with the 2022-23 budget.
Mr. Newton cleared this up by sharing how the district grants from the Youth Coalition and the Dagle Foundation are used to cover the assembly costs, but the principal of each EL school and Mr. Newton have their own budgets set aside specifically for assemblies.
None of this money was touched during the budget crisis last year.
“We feel it is that significant and important to have those assemblies so that’s why we budget money to do so,” Mr. Newton said.
Sometimes factors, including temperature and layout, can impact the effectiveness of assemblies and this one has been remembered as one that was hot and cramped.
After the most recent assembly with motivational speaker and speed painter Tom Varano, Mr. Newton announced the district is working to get air conditioning in the gym.
“Having been here a long time, some go over better than others. But I think the school district tries to bring us the very best [assemblies] that they can,” history teacher and Veterans Day organizer Matthew LaConti said.
Mr. LaConti is very familiar with assemblies since this past year’s Veterans Day assembly was run and organized by Ms. Singer and himself.
When finding a speaker, there are many factors that the district looks for. One being they have an entertaining show, another is that they are linked with goals that the school is focusing on to meet the needs of the students. For example, the most recent assemblies were geared toward the mental health aspect while other themes include drug prevention, Veterans Day, and safe driving.
The school creates a mix of in-house and outside speakers to add variety to the assemblies. Outside speakers are what gets paid for which includes Tom Varano (Emotion through Art), John Halligan(Suicide Prevention), and Justice John Broderick (Drug Prevention).
Following this thinking assistant principal Julie Shvetz said that some assemblies have become staple traditions at ELHS because the message they carry is worth the out of class time like the annual Veterans Day assembly and more recently the safe driving presentation.
“It’s important for students and staff to hear from other folks who have had different life experiences, who have a vaster knowledge of issues we all face and to be able to hear different messages,” Mr Newton said.
