The school had an important guest Sept. 13 when Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education, Mick Zais, visited the school accompanied by other education officials of various levels, such as the superintendent of Omaha Public Schools.

Zais toured various parts of the school, such as the Urban Agriculture (Ag) box, the Student Based Health Center (SBHC) and the commons. Zais praised the school for having diverse groups and not being “clique-y” and expressed his views on post-secondary education during his visit.

“The assumption that everyone should [go to a four-year university] is an elitist perspective,” Zais said. “They [students] have other goals. They want to go to the workforce, they want to support a low income family…we need to honor these goals.”

He believes that schools shouldn’t only promote four-year universities to students but should also teach about other post high school options, such as obtaining an associate’s degree.

His schedule included meetings with school officials and a student-based round-table discussion which took place towards the end of the school day and lasted past 4 p.m.

The round-table discussion was held in room 112 and included 13 students. Participants were chosen based off of many factors. When making nominations, teachers took into account student’s involvement in activities like the Transportation Distribution Logistics (TDL) and Ag academies, Advanced Placement courses and athletics.

Senior Esmeralda Rodriguez was one of the students chosen. Before the discussion, she was nervous, but like others, she wished there had been more afterwards.

Zais spent most of the time with the students asking about their activities at the school and learning more about them. Rodriguez says this left her disappointed.

The school arranged a second meeting in response to the lack of two-way conversation. It took place with Commissioner of Education for the State of Nebraska Dr. Matthew Blomstedt and his deputy, Dr. Deborah Frison. The meeting provided students with answers to their questions.

Only eight students came to the meeting. Students such as senior Efren Gonzalez-Ortega attended the second discussion on Sept. 20, that lasted from from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Like Rodriguez, Gonzalez-Ortega feels the meeting with Zais could have been better, but was still informative.

“On the second one it was more of us wanting to seek more information from them rather than them ask us the questions,” Gonzalez-Ortega said. “I felt they were hiding something or they didn’t want to answer.”