At the recent Local School Council (LSC) meeting, the candidates for the upcoming LSC election spoke about their respective campaigns. In addition, the current LSC discussed a variety of school-related topics, ranging from security concerns to shifts in curriculum.

The meeting on March 22 began with a handful of campaign speeches from the candidates present at the meeting. Candidates are grouped into five categories: parent, teacher, community, non-teacher staff, as well as student representatives.The winner for each category will be announced at the election on April 19. The voting will be done by teachers, students, parents, staff, and community members during this time.

Parent representative candidates include: Anne Lokken, Matthew Beaudet, Julie Coffman, Maia Radnev, Patricia O’Keefe, Emily Haite, Benjamin Wong, and Ellen Rosenfeld.

The Community Representative candidates are Anna Borja-Scales and Maureen George.

Teacher candidates are Katherine Whittaker and Daniel Law.

Student candidates (not present) are Ava Sklar and Katelyn Beaudet. Additionally, Jean Galiardo is the only candidate for Non-Teacher Staff.

After the candidates delivered their speeches, Principal Tennison discussed a multitude of topics:

• Apple’s event at Lane, which had been in the works for 6-8 weeks prior to March 22, according to Tennison. In preparation, Apple has installed new speakers in the auditorium, changed light bulbs, as well as cleaned bathrooms and auditorium seats.
• At the meeting, a parent said she was concerned about the safety of students at school. She also said that Lane should have more security in order to check more students at the door in the morning. Tennison said that he has pushed for more security equipment, however it is difficult to obtain due to the budget of CPS. Still, he said that Lane follows the CPS safety protocol and has visited other selective enrollment schools to ensure that Lane is up to par with safety standards.
• Tennison said that teachers are currently working on new unit plans, specifically driving toward AP-alignment curriculum, individual student feedback, and inquiry driven discussion.
• The 44th annual college fair was held in the cafeteria on April 5. 150 colleges were present at the event.
• Tennison commended recent accomplishments of students who represent Lane in the JV debate team, JV individual debaters, LTAC Science Olympiad categories “Towers” and “Rocks & Minerals,” Varsity Robotics, The Warrior, Varsity Cheerleading, Boys Varsity Individual Wrestling and Girls Frosh Basketball have all recently won awards or competitions city and statewide.

After the LSC discussed these topics, parent representative Julie Coffman spoke about a recent parent survey formulated by the Lane LSC conducted to solicit parents’ thoughts about Lane.

She said that approximately 725 parents completed the survey, which was also available in Spanish this year. Coffman listed some popular responses within the survey:

• A popular response was that the school should have a better website, and one that is easier to navigate. Tennison addressed this, and acknowledged that Apple has created a new, updated website. (https://www.lanetech.org/)
• 92 percent of parents gave Lane a good rating, and many were pleased with the safety of the school.
• Some parents were concerned that students aren’t getting enough college guidance. The LSC addressed this as well by again mentioning the upcoming College Fair on April 5. Along with the College Fair, a community meeting was held on April 10 at 6:30 in the cafeteria to guide students and parents through the college process.

The LSC then listed some plans for school improvements and fundraisers for the upcoming 2018-19 school year:

• The council mentioned that there will be funding for new lab equipment for Physics classes, which will decrease the need to share equipment with other classes.
• The council also addressed the need for more girls bathrooms. Plans are currently being made to convert two of the bathrooms (location undecided) from male to female during the next school year.
• Improved locker rooms are going to be constructed on the third floor by Gym 3.
• There are also plans to hire a new counselor and a new security guard due to the large ratio of students to staff. Tennison emphasized that he wants students to be adequately represented and protected.

The next LSC meeting will take place on April 26, after the April 19 elections.