Barking Points: Mr. Strot’s feedback

In the same way that every successful ship needs a wise captain, every successful troop needs a brave general, and every successful business needs a bold founder, every successful school needs a strong principal. When Guy Strot, principal of LRMS took the reins of the school this past summer, he installed a set of programs to improve the structure of the school. Strot’s initiatives, such as the learning center and the introduction of the high school prep class, have positively affected student learning and development. The adaptations he plans to make in the second semester make the future of LRMS look bright!

Strot’s discipline plans have been a success so far, and the system is still improving to benefit the students as much as possible. The learning center originated as a detention room, but Strot said, “We have transitioned the learning center into a study hall.”

Since the learning center usually has no more than four students in it for discipline infractions, it has transformed in the first semester to help ineligible students.

“(We) started with 40-80 kids with D’s or F’s, and by the end of the first quarter, we’ve cut it to under 20.”

Intervention has played a big role in the first semester too. Originally, students who were failing a class were taken out of an elective class to participate in an intervention period in an attempt to raise their grade.

Strot said, “I hate taking kids away from fun classes, (but) if I let kids move to high school without passing math, I’m not doing my job.”

In the new, adapted version of intervention that is being used now, ineligible students will have seven classes in their schedule and take one period aside each day to have a study hall. As of right now, this program is affecting 24 students.

The high school prep class has had a positive effect on students by preparing them for future learning. “Three, four, or five years from now, we will realize that it was a great decision to have that class,” Strot believes.

The high school prep class teaches strategies that are similar to those taught in the AVID program. The AVID program, which is a college preparedness system, has statistics from across the nation, and has clear and satisfactory results that will hopefully soon be evident throughout LRMS students.

“High school prep isn’t difficult in terms of being hard, but it’s difficult in terms of being organized.”

Strot is working hard to provide the most opportunities as possible for LRMS students. In second semester, he plans to tweak the schedule, with the possibility of allowing eighth graders who take eight classes to separate one period out of their day to tutor a sixth grader. “The ultimate form of learning is when you can teach it to someone else,” Strot believes.

A parent letter will be going home near the end of January to get feedback from first semester, but overall Strot is pleased.

“Middle school kids usually get a bad rep, but these middle school kids have been exceptional!