During this past summer, NWHS staff, parents, and administrators have worked diligently to bring about positive changes at Northwest. By the end of last year, Northwest was mired in poor student behavior and lax enforcement of school rules. This year with two new administrators and a new commitment to respect and discipline, students can expect things to run more smoothly. “I believe that we have a tremendous amount of positive energy and enthusiasm in the building at this time, and students are living up to Mrs. Dempsey’s very high expectations,” stated Jimmy D’Andrea, Northwest Assistant Principal.
    When students began the 2009-2010 school year, they met two new administrators, new principal, Ms. Dempsey, and new vice principal, Mr. Robertson. There are also several new counselors and countless new teachers. 
    In addition to the new people, there were new policies as well. There was a stricter dress code, a new pass system, and even the possibility of Saturday detention. On the first two days of school, Ms. Dempsey had class meetings with each of the grades during which she presented and explained each of the new policies. Students reacted to the new policies with groans throughout the auditorium. 
    The new dress code includes zero tolerance of hats being anywhere in sight, and zero tolerance of any type of tank top. Last year, the dress code simply gave guidelines; hats only had to be off your head and tank tops had to have thicker straps. Mrs. Dempsey stated her number one dress code policy at the assembly; she should not see “the three B’s.” That is “Back, Butt, and Boobs.”
    The new pass policy is a long process to follow. Last year, students used their agenda books as passes. All that was required for that was the date, time out, destination, and teachers initials. With this new pass policy, you have to ask the teacher for a pass. Then, the teacher has to fill out the pass with the student’s name, the destination, the room number the student is coming from, the time out, the date, and then the teacher must sign it with their full name. After that, students have to sign out in the sign out book where they write down their names, the time out, and destination. Not until all this is completed, can a student leave the classroom. The process, however, is not over. When they return to the classroom, they have to remember to sign back in with the time and their initials. Overall, it takes about fifteen minutes out of class time, just to do something as simple and necessary as going to the bathroom. Mr. D’Andrea informed “This idea was developed by the Instructional Council during the summer. The Instructional Council is composed of all administrators, all resource teachers, elected faculty representatives, the academic intervention teacher, the signature program coordinator, and the staff development teacher.”
    The passes also come in different colors. Red passes are for the first floor, yellow passes are for the second floor, green passes are for the first floor, blue passes are for counseling, orange passes are for the nurse, and white passes are for the main office. One of the reasons for the disposable passes is that “the disposable passes are better than the agenda books health wise. When students go to the bathroom with their agenda books they would pick up a lot of germs and with the concern for the H1N1 flu and staph infections disposable passes seemed the way to go,” says counseling department head, Ms. Dethlefsen. The second reason for the disposable passes, states Ms. Dethlefsen, is that the new passes help “when we see you at a vending machine on the first floor and you have a pass for the third” teachers will know that you are not supposed to be there.
    Out of all the new policies, implementation of Saturday detention is the one that has received the most buzz and attention. No student actually wants to have to come to school on a weekend. However, this new policy seems more of a threat than an actuality. We have yet to receive a list of actions that could result in Saturday detention. Mr. D’Andrea says, “Saturday detention is a new initiative to help students make positive choices each and every day. These detentions will be 3-4 hours long and will occur in the media center.”
    People have been questioning whether the new policies will work and be good for the school. Ms. Dethlefsen believes that “the changes are good because we definitely needed it.” She said, “Students, parents, and staff were talked to about the changes they wanted and we took what they said and are doing what they wanted.” 
    Since all the changes seem to reflect the wishes of staff, parents, and students, we should not be seeing many problems this year. An example of proof that the new policies are working is that now that administration is doing hall sweeps on a regular basis. We are definitely seeing less and less students in the hallways and more students making it to class on time.