MUSCLE: “Making Ur School Cooler and Less Ew.” It’s an acronym Shorewood High School ASB president Wilfred Chan spent quite awhile crafting.
“I had to make it perfect,” he admitted.
MUSCLE, a program-in-the-works to get students involved in spiffing up the campus, is one idea Chan and ASB members are working on to raise school spirit, a goal of theirs this year. Administrators are also trying new things to up student involvement.
“Shorewood is suffering a diminished reputation, a decreased amount of pride at being Shorewood students,” Chan said. “We’re trying to bring back the Shorewood excitement.”
He’s already seen some this year. Spirit Week, before homecoming in October, had more participation than it’s had in years, he said.
“Everyone at Shorewood really got into it in a big way,” Chan said. “We had record numbers of people dressing up.”
The ASB keeps tallies on that as part of a competition. One day was superhero day.
“Everyone came to school with blankets around their necks,” Chan said. “I think we had more than 50 percent of students participate that day, which is amazing for a school of 1800.”
The next step was RSVP, a program new to Shorewood that gathers student opinions about how to make the school better. The idea came from school administration and coincided with the ASB’s goals, Chan said.
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, student representatives visited all classrooms at Shorewood to get input on what they liked about the school and how they thought it could be made better.
Students will tally the results and come up with an action plan to address improvements.
Students often don’t feel like their voices count, said Barbara Moquin, dean of students at Shorewood.
“We’re trying to broaden student involvement,” she said.
Some of the issues students raised during the input sessions are the same ones discussed in the faculty room. If they can’t be fixed, at least they can be talking points, she said.
The next project in the works is MUSCLE, which is now in the planning stages.
“One of my plans is to make the school look nicer,” Chan said. “I think people have given up the school for dead.”
Because a new Shorewood High School is being planned, students tend to not invest in the campus, even though it will be there a few more years, he said.
Chan presented his ideas to the ASB Thursday, Nov. 20.
They include: new trash cans, discouraging littering, replacing crumbling benches and lights that have been smashed and getting students to help clean the school.
Chan has another idea too, which is still in the planning stage: finding a way to get student art, photography and murals displayed around Shorewood.
“We have a lot of empty space on the walls,” Chan said. “I feel like we can add a bit of flair to our campus.”
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