Starting the school year strong, Blue Valley is keeping its Tigers in check with new rules. Principal Charles Golden wants these changes to make this a purposeful year — be where you are supposed to be, use time wisely and keep the school safe by following through with the rules. Here are two of the primary rule changes.

Academic Support Passes

The added supervision of hall passes keep track of the number of people in the hallways and controls the “wanderers” in the building

Last year there was an unwanted amount of students roaming around during AST and being in places they shouldn’t. AST is a set time of getting work done, and teachers wanted to allow students who need the time of AST to be able to focus in a quiet room.

In order to visit another class during AST, students have to have a pass previously given from the teacher they are visiting.

“One of the things we’ve got to safeguard is the people who need to be getting help [and] doing some work have got an environment in which they can do that,” Golden said. “[The passes do] limit freedom a little bit, and I don’t like that, but I do like the reason why we’re doing it.”

No Holding Doors

“Even if it’s cold and rainy and they’re saying, ‘Please let me in’ — you shouldn’t let them in,” Golden said. “I would feel guilty about that too, but they need to go to one of the approved entrances where they can ‘badge’ in their ID cards. Our purpose is to keep everybody safe.” 

Although students may recognize the locked-out student from their ELA class or from the hallways, do not to let them in for safety reasons. If someone opens the door to the outsider, conversations and consequences will follow. 

“We’ve already had that conversation with actually more than one student, and every time we find somebody doing that we are going to stop them and have those conversations,” Golden said. “If they do it again, we are going to give them fines and school consequences because everybody’s safety is important.”

With the new rules in place, improvements are being seen. 

“Fewer students than before will leave a class and just wander around for 20 minutes, and that’s not good for learning,” Golden said. “More teachers [also] feel that when they need to help students learn, they have an environment in which they can do that.”

There are differences in rules this year, and Golden hopes students will respond positively. 

“I hope students who need to use [AST to] get things done feel like it’s quiet enough that [they can],” he said. “I think that’s important.”