Chenyao Liu

Principal Tim Phares stands at his new desk. Phares said the school is working to increase student safety and efficiency.

According to Principal Tim Phares, administration has been discussing the implementation of new pass and attendance policies. One of these policies will go into effect Friday, Jan. 13 and will require students to scan their IDs at the media center, the cafeteria line and attendance office.

“Obviously, the first and foremost (reason) is just that IDs are about student safety,” Phares said. “At a certain point, it may be that kids are wearing their IDs, where they have to have them on… I’ve heard rumors that there will be times where there may be a kid from a different school in our building, just hanging out, and that’s like, ‘How would we be able to identify that?’ So, if they have their ID on them, we might be able to know.”

Beyond increasing student safety, Phares said administration is hoping to increase overall efficiency. 

“A lot of things that we do are about being efficient,” he said. “We changed (from) having tables in the gymnasium, we’ve moved them into Greyhound Station… We’ve looked at electronic passes that involve student IDs, different programs.”

Another attempt to increase efficiency is the attendance office allowing parents to submit student absences using an app, instead of through the call line.

“Parents (are) able to submit their student’s absence through an app now, which is very convenient,” Phares said. “You don’t have to pick up the phone. We think it provides a lot of equity, in that it’s hard for a non-English speaker to have to call in and explain their absence or things like that. Now it can be done on an app, on a phone for families.”

Sophomore Annalise Taller said she has mixed feelings about the app.

“I feel like it’s really useful for the parents,” Taller said, “but I can see how people will be worried about students trying to cheat the system… I think it’s slightly helpful, but I think we’ll have to see how it rolls out and how students use it, see if they’re leaving school early and checking themselves out or not.”