New Beginnings At West

There have been new changes, opportunities, and general experiences at Hazelwood West that have been made new or that have been made known. The changes are happening because of tardies, student fights, skipping classes, and general insubordination. Although the changes are being made because of the negative things, the changes are making the school much stronger safer, and more positive.

The changes that are being made are making the school a better place. These changes include the staff controlling the morning procedures by making them sit by grade level so the students can’t wander around, providing structure and order for the morning routines since there are double back buses, the football field is now new and improved and there are also Friday Night Lights football games now. The staff of West has been proactive in the hallways to make sure that no students are wandering the hallways still, more parental and student involvement this school year, and more extracurricular activities. The staff serves on committees and the team that is a part of the resolution solution committee is also more active with solutions. 

With the changes being made at Hazelwood West, there are also new opportunities. These new opportunities include after-school tutoring, virtual tutoring, and Saturday tutoring so the students can take those opportunities to get the help that they need. There are also more extracurricular activities that more students can get involved in. Dr. Demtrius Adams, the building principal at West, wants to see the West community get more involved with providing partnerships and more resources for the students. He is advocating for the community to step in and partner with schools to provide more resources and opportunities for the students. If Adams had unlimited resources he would make sure that the students would have more social and emotional help, there would be outside sources of food, more teachers provided, and more opportunities for kids to take educational field trips. 

“I would provide more opportunities where kids can attend different types of educational learning field trips, especially in a college career area,” Adams said. 

The school is focusing on helping individual students this year to make sure that the students get to where they need to be. According to Adams, the school is starting to look at students’ SRI scores and their data so the school can make sure they are there for the students. The main goal that Adams has is to have 90% of the student cohort rate graduate at Hazelwood West. The school is trying to make sure there is an increase in the graduation rate that they are getting the seniors ready for graduation and that they are preparing the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen for graduation in advance so they are ready to graduate. 

“So this year we are focusing on each student as a whole looking at all the data for each of our students and making sure that we have plans in place to make sure that they are successful.” Adams said.