Students discussed the importance of homeroom and expressed concern for retaining SDA’s culture with a growing student population at the March Forum meeting, which was held in room 93 during lunch. Several topics were discussed, with the majority of the time being split into discussions about potential changes to the format of homeroom, the large number of freshmen that will be attending the school next year, and the extracurricular classes being offered after school. Students also made announcements about events coming up in the school schedule, and discussed the creation of a memorial for a deceased student.

Some of the teachers at SDA have expressed discontent with the format of homeroom, students in charge of the Forum said, and have stated that they don’t know what its purpose is and aren’t sure it is a good use of time. Students at the Forum overwhelmingly stated that homeroom was important to them, and was an opportunity for them to do schoolwork or socialize with friends.

However, they agreed that it might be time to come up with some new ideas and give homeroom more of a clear intention. Some suggestions included having a homeroom fair at the beginning of the year and focusing more on homeroom themes and activities.

Another topic discussed was how the incoming freshmen will impact the school. There was no lottery this year for incoming freshmen, and approximately 600 of them will be attending the school in the fall. All of the sophomore, junior, and senior transfer students were admitted as well.

Forum attendees stressed the importance of keeping the school culture strong amidst the influx of students (as well as possible new teachers), and discussed ways to make the new students a part of SDA. Having an event similar to Community Day at the beginning of the year was a suggested idea, as well as expanding SDA’s Link Crew program, a volunteer group of students from other grades who help with freshman orientation, or creating a buddy system.

The first wave of extracurricular classes being offered after school came to a close recently. Not many students attended the sessions, students said, and improving advertising around the school in order to increase interest was mentioned. Some students hoped the schedule for the next wave of classes could be changed, as the previous classes were all on Tuesdays, making it difficult for those with previous commitments. The possibility of having previews of the classes during homeroom was also brought up.