Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Kristen Gurekovich
The Tyrone Area Middle and High School Student Councils attended a district IV conference at Altoona Area High School in Altoona, Pennsylvania on April 23, 2003. At the conference, motivational speaker, Mark Scharenbroich, and Governor Rendell, talked to Student Council members about educational issues in their schools.
During the presentation, Mr. Scharenbroich brought up many interesting opinions and various suggestions for our own schools.
First, among all, was academics. Although our school has many pictures of school athletes hanging in the hallways and especially in the main gym lobby, a school that has PSSA scores among the top in the state may also want to recognize those with the highest PSSA or SAT scores, and Valedictorian and Salutatorian pictures. Other suggestions included a mural of senior “hands” where all the seniors leave a lasting impression on their “home away from home” with their hand prints on a painted wall.
Also, at Central Cambria High School, a young girl paints quotes on the wall, and then erases them every other week to put up another. Murals in general just bring schools alive.
Kylie Grassmyer said, “Art on the walls and in the hallways would be a great addition.” And when asked if our school needed some revision to liven it up or make it more of a “live-able” space, 90% of the students surveyed answered “yes.”
Student here at Tyrone also had some ideas of their own. Chris Chamberlain, said, “I think we should have couches in every classroom, “have assemblies of local bands playing, or save money all year and get a big concert with a popular band- the band would be voted on.”
Jenna Simondale said, “Color on the walls in the bathrooms, they are so boring and they look like jail cells.” Cont to pg. 8 Student Council (Cont. from pg. 7) Mark’s suggestion to us? “[Make restrooms] more like the resorts in Hawaii and less like the Shawshank Redemption.”
Justin Clark stated that “more pictures of athletes on the walls,” would make a great addition to liven up our school environment. Terry Tate said that various murals painted around the school would be “cool, as long as I get one.”
Among the 40 Student Council students that attended the conference, Dan Domenick was gregarious and asked many questions and had many comments. “I thought Rendell already got elected!” he said. Although the Governor’s appeal may have sounded like an election campaign, he did not talk down to the students ; instead, the governor talked to the delegates as equals.
The subjects and principles that were brought up in the Altoona Area High School auditorium left us in wonder and amazement concerning how students can help make their school a “home away from home.”
Consider this ending quote paraphrased by former president, John F. Kennedy:
“Ask not what your school can do for you, but what you can do for your school!”

By Rick