RUHS Gets Input
On Senior Project
By Sandy Vondrasek

One year ago, the Randolph Union High School Board received a lengthy review of the senior project, drafted by an eight-member committee of school and community members.

Recommendations of the study included more efforts to inform parents, the creation of a senior project brochure, and school-wide efforts to ensure that students have adequate practice writing large research papers before their senior year.

The committee also recommended improving public relations, and requiring student attendance at the senior project open house in May.

At the RUHS board’s April 9 meeting, Principal John Holmes briefly reported on progress made on some of those recommendations.

Merradee Lyons, president of the RUHS Community-School Organization (CSO), noted that senior project has been a regular topic at CSO meetings this year, and that parents of younger students are often anxious about the demands of the project.

She added that the CSO overall supports the project, but believes that it should "be reviewed, and be reviewed independently."

Lyons noted that most of the people on last year’s review committee "were involved in some way" with the senior project.

Board Chair Linda Minsinger said the board would take that request under advisement. She also noted that another issue to be resolved is whether credit should be awarded for the senior project.

Social studies teacher Scott Sorrell, faculty representative to the school board, suggested that most seniors are relatively well prepared to write a senior project paper, but many appear to lack the necessary research skills.

Board member Andy Becker, who sits on the Senior Project Review Board (an appeals board for students who don’t meet project deadlines), noted a sharp up-tick in appeals recently. There were only a few annual appeals until last year, which had 14, he said. This year there have been 11, Becker stated