Friday, September 18, 2009

Went to the Harlan LSC meeting Thursday night

Well there was no LSC meeting. That news came almost half an hour after the meeting was supposed to start. At that time I learned that the LSC Chair was ill and there wasn't enough council members available for a quorum. Also there are 4 open seats on the LSC especially for parents (perhaps at some point I can find some info pertaining to how one is able to obtain a seat on an LSC). I will refer you to the LSC schedule here. It was noted that the LSC meets every third Thursday of every month at 6:30 PM typically in Harlan's social room.

In any case, at 6:30 (that was around the time I arrived for the LSC meeting) apparently there was already a Parental Advisory Council (PAC) meeting in progress. That was when I should have know there was to be no LSC meeting, but I could never imagine what would take up some of that time. BTW, as for the PAC I should check the schools current events calendar more often!

There was an impromptu tour of the school with Principal Evans. Well I had to get over how different the school looks. I never had a chance to go upstairs, but I see that the school has a few more computer labs than the ones I knew about at school in my day.

In addition to that there were some bathrooms that in my day were sealed. Who knows why they were sealed back then. It could have been security, it could have cost money to maintain, or it could be that they didn't work anymore. The principal said that those bathrooms haven't worked for close to four years and today they work just fine.

Where there were the former shop rooms, there are now computer labs on the south end of the school. These labs serve both the new magnet engineering program and science students. The principal said that the engineering program wasn't large enough yet hence the engineering program had to share their labs.

Another room that contained shops is now a counseling office. I wonder what they did with the old counseling offices upstairs!

Oh yeah one of the old science classrooms now has a computer lab and the principal is seeking some white boards. I'm going to assume those are the type of boards that allow you to write on the board with an electronic marker and it comes out as type assuming that it's connected to an overhead projector with a PC. Or it could just be a white board with which you can only use an actual marker.

When the parents left the social room they actually went to the gym, however, I had no idea there was a tour so I didn't go immediately. I found everyone in what used to be the lady's locker room although I didn't see what's in there now. When they left the gyms, I didn't follow the group I went back to the social room to see about the LSC meeting.

When I saw the group head towards the science classrooms that's when I joined them again. Followed them all the way back to the social room.

The school is definitely ready for the 21st century. The Harlan I knew was stuck between the 1950s and the 1990s. That would not be the problem, the disappointing part is that students still have to walk thru metal detectors even now. It's disappointing but still understandable, there are some young people who may attempt to bring a weapon to school with them. Although I would like to think today's Harlan student wouldn't bother with such an exercise, just sayin.

Bottom line is that the school hasn't look this good in years. Perhaps we should plan another outing to the Harlan LSC in the near future. I hope they do a tour as well!

No comments:

Post a Comment

PLEASE READ FIRST!!!! Comment Moderating and Anonymous Comment Policy

While anonymous comments are not prohibited we do encourage you to help readers identify you so that other commenters may respond to you. Either read the moderating policy for how or leave an identifier (which could be a nickname for example) at the end of the comment.

Also note that this blog is NOT associated with any public or political officials including Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer!