Lane’s Local School Council (LSC) held a meeting May 18 to approve purchase orders (PO’s) for AP test fees and to look over issues with students cheating on both homework and tests with the use of their cellular devices.

Council Resolutions

• The LSC acknowledged the following sports teams for their accomplishments over the past month: Women’s Water Polo, Women’s Varsity & Junior Varsity Soccer, Women’s Varsity 1600m and 3200m track, Men’s Varsity Triple Jump, Women’s F-S 4kg Shot Put, Men’s F-S overall Track & field, 4x800m Track Relay, 800m Track, and 12 lb shot put.

Reports Led by Principal Brian Tennison

Tennison focused the reports on ways in which Lane can make paying for school registration fees can be easier for parents. Methods like separate installments accompanied with the integration of E-Pay into the payment process were brought up during the discussion.

The LSC also discussed and approved Educational Support Professional Jill Wood’s budgeting packet which included the school’s balance sheet and checking account. Acknowledgment of the balance sheet led to approving a PO for AP fees that covered $350,000 in costs and was approved unanimously and approving the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Foundation Walkathon fundraiser which took place outside of Door O on May 24.

PPLC Led by Gerardo Gonzales

The Lane Tech Professional Personnel Leadership Committee is an organization led by Lane employees that spends the year developing educational and social recommendations for the school that are presented to both the principal and the LSC. The PPLC’s recommendation, brought to the attention of the committee by Mr. Gonzales, regarded the usage of cell phones amongst students and the tendencies of cheating that have seemed to increase over the past year. The thought of the PPLC and the LSC is that the growth of technology in the form of cell phones has seemed to increase a student’s ability to cheat on both their homework and tests. Mr. Gonzales said that the purpose of the discussion was to emphasize that teachers are concerned about what they can do to minimize this trend and to create a school wide policy they could implement to stop this recurrence.  

“It’s easy for that one kid to give it out,” Gonzales said. “They don’t want to be outcasts for not giving out work.”

LSC Student Rep. Colman Adams, Div. 778, was able to bring insight into the discussion, being a student that belongs to the group in which this presented problem exists.

“There are whole group chats for classes and most people know that,” Adams said. “You get the assignment and you search on Google and the answers are right there.”

Adams also viewed this trend as a change in culture, saying that it is too easy to receive answers with search engines like Google and it is impossible to catch every person who does cheat on their homework.

“I think it has to be the culture that has to change,” Adams said.

The LSC talked about ways in which this issue can be resolved and one of the championed ideas was creating a presentation for the beginning of the year assembly that would discuss issues with cheating and ways to prevent it.

Friends of Lane Led by Michael Plumley

Mike Plumley, Treasurer of Friends of Lane, reported the success of the annual Friends of Lane fundraisers.

The Annual Gala, which raised $130,000 in 2016, gathered $191,000 this year and is waiting on a donation of $25,000 from the Cubs, and another donation of $5,000 from a law firm; the cost of the event was $34,000.

The Annual Appeal, which collected $107,000 in 2016, raised around $280,000.

“The Lane community is really contributing,” Plumley said.

After the reports from Friends of Lane, the LSC went into closed session, where they were scheduled to discuss the principal evaluation/selection, the details of which will be available in the upcoming months.

The May LSC meeting consisted of acknowledging the success of Lane’s student body through accomplishments in the fields of both arts and athletics, and discussing how the LSC can reduce the trend of cheating for the following year.