After all of the semester one GPAs had been calculated, it was announced on Tuesday, Feb. 2, that Foothill doesn’t have enough students on Renaissance to be able take a field trip to Magic Mountain in the spring.
With 78.7 percent of students on Renaissance, they were 8.3 percent short of the 87 percent goal. The 80 percent reported after quarter one was not maintained or increased.
To be on Renaissance, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.0 or increase their GPA by 0.5.
Seniors had 83 percent on Renaissance, juniors had 79 percent, sophomores had 81.5 percent, and freshmen had 72 percent. Associated Student Body (ASB) Advisor Melanie “Captain” Lindsey said that is is “pretty typical” for the freshmen to be lower than the other grades.
“It’s a hard transition from middle school to high school and some of them take a while to find their feet so we usually see those numbers increase by the end of the year. […] It takes a minute,” Lindsey said.
Historically, the percent of students on Renaissance has hovered around 77 or 76 percent, so ASB is proud of the progress that students made this year.
ASB Renaissance President Noah Greenslit is “not totally bummed we didn’t make the 87 percent. It was a pretty lofty number.”
With Foothill normally getting about 77 percent on Renaissance, the increase is a big deal.
“We’ve been pretty stuck at that number for years,” Lindsey said. “So a two percent increase, while that doesn’t seem huge, is actually huge for a school that’s already so high.”
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/245485985″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Many of the students are disappointed that they aren’t able to go.
Freshman Abigail Strong says that “it kinda sucks but if you didn’t put the effort towards it, then you don’t deserve it.”
Junior Ellena Thomas echoed Strong’s sentiments.
“I am actually really disappointed that we couldn’t go because […] it’s just not fair. Like as a whole school we are not able to go because we worked hard in first semester but it […] wasn’t [enough],” she said.
This year Greenslit is “really just going to buckle down on Renaissance and just make it better.”
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/245485850″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
“I’ve decided this year […] I don’t want to focus on kids on Renaissance right now. I’m gonna be focusing on kids that are not on Renaissance right now,” he said.
As an extra incentive for seniors, Lindsey is trying to get them an exclusive trip.
“I’m in negotiations with Mr. Bova on that one because we didn’t hit that number and this senior class was the junior class that had to do SBAC last year […] but there was no incentive because it was a brand new test and we didn’t know anything.”
Looking to the future, ASB will be communicating with teachers to see what can be done to give the students not on Renaissance the best chance of reaching it.
According to Lindsey, their focus “is going to be in involving more staff members in more directed intervention with our kids who have not yet made it onto Renaissance.”
“Let’s talk with those kids. Let’s figure out what’s going on. Do they need tutoring? Do they need peer mentoring? Do they need support? What exactly do these kids need to help find academic success?”
Featured Photo Credit: Grace Carey/The Foothill Dragon Press
