One defining quality about Lake Park is that the school is always open to listening to students’ ideas about ways to improve the school, and one of the school’s latest student involvement programs, Principal Advisory Council, makes it accessible for all students to share their ideas on ways to improve both Lake Park campuses.
“Principal Advisory Council is a way for myself and [East Campus Principal Dr. Sean Potts] to get a pulse on what our students think is working well around the school and what is not,” West Campus Principal Dr. Alexia Ellett said. “Our main hope is for students to feel like there is one more place for their voices to be heard.”
Since its beginning around three years ago, the club has been the cause for a lot of significant changes made to the school.
“Accedemically, we’ve received meaningful insights about specific courses and curriculum and how they can be improved. School spirit wise, we’ve been able to generate some of our most popular and well received events, such as the ‘Welcome to West,’ field trips, giving seniors the ability to paint their parking spots, the spring assembly, and so much more,” Dr. Ellett said.
Dr. Ellett and Dr. Potts wanted to ensure the Principal Advisory Council wasn’t a formal commitment – merely just a way for students to give feedback without having it take up time outside of school hours. Hence, Principal Advisory Council takes place once every month during lunch periods, properly addressing the fact that students shouldn’t have to treat the club like a commitment and instead can focus on other things outside of class time.
Since the start of the club, it has grown tremendously.
“We used to meet in the conference room in the main office, but since then, the club has grown to having up to twenty kids per period, so we had to move locations,” Dr. Ellett said. “I really want a diverse range of students, as not having that would not give me an accurate assessment of what’s going on.”
