In addition to Thursdays, students will now be able to attend club meetings on Friday during advisement. There are 46 active clubs and over 70 students involved in two or more. The stress of having to choose between one or the other is going to become a little lighter.
“There’s a little schedule built out where five or six clubs are meeting on Thursdays; five or six clubs are meeting on Fridays,” said dean of students Jason Dworak, who organized the new system. “The way that was developed is we looked at all the rosters (provided by sponsors), and we ran them against each other. That helped us decide, ‘Oh, if we assign these clubs on these days, then we’ll have the least amount of conflicts.’”
This new schedule isn’t expected to come with too much conflict since students are already used to how club days work, but they will have to get used to the new passes.
“Everybody’s going to have a similar-looking pass, but it’s going to be just for that student,” Dworak said. “If you’re in four clubs that meet on Thursday, it’ll have your name, your clubs and the room numbers, and it’s going to be green … Friday’s will look a little different.”
Dworak has been trying to anticipate potential challenges and solutions.
“I anticipate some future growth,” said principal Anthony Clark-Kaczmarek. “I feel like there are going to be clubs who say, ‘Hey, I want in on this now’… and that’s going to cause us a little more figuring out. Speaking broadly, any time you change a system, that newness causes a little bit of discomfort. That discomfort will happen, but it’ll be okay if we’ve tried to think through a lot of those issues.”
Last semester, student council sat down with administration at their monthly meeting to discuss concerns about students’ club attendance. They worked together to come up with a solution.
“A lot of the class officers, they have multiple clubs to get to but only one day to do it, and that wasn’t enough for any of us,” said student council president senior Kevin Trejo Orea. “This was all our main problem.”
Students and teachers were involved in the planning. Dworak reached out to students to get their feedback through surveys. He met with teachers as well to see how willing and capable they felt about an additional club day.
“Kids’ lives are a little different than they were in the past,” Clark-Kaczmarek said. “Twenty years ago, kids were meeting after school way more often, and now kids after school have more responsibilities. What we’re trying to do is give them the same opportunity but built within the school day. It’s really just us adjusting to the needs of the students.”
This change will allow students to be as involved as they possibly can. Club and activity involvement is a part of the high school experience Clark-Kaczmarek has always encouraged students to explore.
“This will broaden their opportunity to connect with Bryan High,” Clark-Kaczmarek said. “It’s one thing to just go to your classes, it’s another thing to be a part of an activity or even athletics. It connects you to the school in a way that makes you feel invested, and it’s meaningful to you.”
