North is trying to win a contest to fix up our campus . In order to install the geo thermal wells, they had to cut down a lot of trees from the front campus. The back campus is the baseball field, so the front went. North is trying to fix up the campus, the story is also found on the site.
I'd appreciate your vote:
http://www.refresheverything.com/desmoinesnorthNorth has a 62% free lunch and 12% reduced lunch. That is the highest in the district.
The profile of the high school is best located with area demographics at
http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/29678Other schools in the district have room additions, vasts amount of technology and so forth. A lot of that comes from their booster clubs being able to solicate money from alumni. North just doesn't have that kind of pull. We have classes in areas that the janitors used to store their cleaning supplies in, storage rooms . Under the auditorium bleachers and so forth. We are the last high school to be getting air conditioning, we got new windows that don't leak air, a sprinkler system and new outside doors.
We are not getting a new building, or a wing addition or anything even close to that. In the hallways the construction of running new heat and water pipes goes on at night and some during the day. the halls have very bright work lights where regular lights were, so there are dark areas and light areas, yet we have a dynamic faculty led by a very nice principal who came to us from Texas. We have all new administrators and all of us are being re-evaluated this year. We have to make a 4% gain this year on the state tests plus a 4% gain every year.
We have students who really try to do their best under their circumstances and we have students who really don't give a rats butt. We are trying like crazy to get them all on board. We all put in 12+ hour days at school, arriving early in the morning and then leaving in the dark of the day. When I get home, I check my email , eat dinner at my computer and then do more work , go to bed. I figure I get about 4 hours with my family then I need to sleep.
In any case, we are trying to show the kids that trying hard for things pay off, it isn't like we are asking for the moon. We are asking for a vote. Pepsi is willing to give money (Probaby as a tax deduction for Pepsico ) to help us. We just need to move from spot 100 to spot 10. That is a long way, but even in these times, we need to stick together. Whatever motivates the kids, motivates the kids.
