Board of Ed Reviews Open Campus Proposal For Ridgefield High School

Members of the Board of Education on Tuesday continued their review of a proposal by the Ridgefield High School Student Government to allow seniors at the school to have an schedule.

Under the proposal (see attached PDF), seniors would be allowed to leave the high school in the event they have an unscheduled block of time of 90 minutes or more. That includes showing up late and leaving early, as well as leaving campus and returning during the school day. Open campus would not be in effect on half days and snow days.

Each senior would have to "apply" to get the open campus privilege and their participation would need to be approved by their parents via a signed contract, under the current proposal.

In addition students would have to "qualify" for the privilege based on their attendance, GPA and disciplinary history. Deans would inform students of their status.

To qualify for open campus, a student would have to maintain a GPA of 2.5 or higher. In addition a student would need to have no more than two unexcused absences and five tardies. Students who cease to qualify during the school year would have their open campus privilege revoked. Participating seniors would be indentified via a special sticker on the back of their student ID card.

During Tuesday's meeting, board member Amy Shinohara floated the idea of raising the required GPA to 3.0.

However Board Chairman Austin Drukker said he wasn't convinced GPA should be a qualifying criteria. He said he has a daughter who is learning disabled, yet she is very responsible and would do well in an open campus arrangement.

"Just because a student doesn't test well… shouldn't disqualify them [from open campus]," Drukker said.

The goal of the proposal is to teach seniors responsibility by giving them increased freedom. This in turn would help prepare them for the open campus experience at college.

"I think to some degree we take kids who are somewhat sheltered here in Ridgefield and we throw them into college where all of a sudden it is a free-for-all," board member Irene Burgess said. "I actually think this is a nice way to ease them into the unmitigated freedom they will have — while still having protection around them."

Seniors in open campus would presumably have more time to work on college applications at home, where they may have better space, resources and technology. Part of the student government's justification for the request is that there is a lack of quality common area in the high school where seniors can consistently and reliably find space to study.

"This is for students who have demonstrated a form responsibility," outgoing RHS Principal Jeffrey Jaslow told the board. Jaslow, who was enthusiastic about the proposal, added that the school administration will monitor the program as a whole, while the student government will establish an OC Committee to monitor student eligibility on a student by student basis.

Jaslow said he thinks students will not want to forfeit the privilege to get out of school early. He said the privilege is a motivation for good behavior. He added, however, that if there was "wholesale abuse of the system" the school administration would not hesitate to revoke the open campus privilege.

Board member John Palermo said ultimately the open campus proposal "really ends up becoming a contract between the parents and the students." He agreed with another board member that the contract "needs some validity with a parent signature" and entertained the idea that each parent's signature should be witnessed and/or notarized.

"This is a deal between the parents and their children," Palermo said. "That's what it comes down to — and we have to be sure the right agreement is in place."

Board member Richard Steinhart emphasized that the "general idea of open campus … is to teach seniors responsibility before they get to the total freedom of college."

"But I do think we need to be cautious with this," he said, adding that he sees the potential for widespread abuse of the system. He suggested limiting open campus to the second semester, "just to start, and we'll see how it goes."

Allie Schiffer, current president of the student government, who helped spearhead the proposal, said in her opinion it would be better to limit it to the first semester, when student workloads tend to be lighter.

Board member Karen Sulzinsky asked Schiffer, "If you had spaces to do your college applications, and if you had WiFi, so you didn't need to go home, would you still be asking for this?"

"To be honest, yes, because it's not just about having space and WiFi, it's more about moving into more responsibility," Schiffer said. "As seniors we are already responsible for so much — we go to practice and put pressure on ourselves to do things that we don't have to do. So why not cut us little bit of slack?"

The board members commended Schiffer and the student government for putting together the thorough and detailed proposal, which was first presented in April.

The Board of Education will vote on the proposal at a later date.