In January 2014, I addressed the issue of the problem hanging over Alliance High, and the ways that change could be brought. Well, it is a year later, I am a year older and I feel like I am now in a position to follow up on the previous story that can be found on ahsthespud.com on my staff profile.

When I wrote the story “A Plea to AHS and the City of Alliance: Accept Change” the school seemed like it was at an all time low. Student involvement was poor, rumors spread faster than fire and it seemed that the mood would never change.

The school year came to an end about as shaky as a school year can. A frenzy of administration changes distracted from learning, the juniors worked hard on state tests (including the writing tests that were thrown out state wide because of a glitch) and the senior class prepared to graduate. The summer went by quickly, with many great things happening in Alliance, and I started to see glimmers of the change that I knew could happen.

At the start of my senior year, I immediately could sense a different feeling in the school. The “Dawg Pound” was resurrected, students were getting involved, and the whole mood was positive. It was truly amazing to see the way just even getting students to come to a volleyball game to cheer on the Bulldogs changed the way the whole school felt. It had started to make me believe that the right people were in the right places and Alliance was on the way up. The school administration was doing a great job and worked (and continues to work hard) to provide a quality education for the youth of the community, and a student section recently left empty, was full and loud as ever.

It was around the middle of November when I started to see old trends sneak back up in the community. Maybe it was the change of weather, I’m still not sure, but it seemed like the progress the school had been making had slowed. Why?

The thing that comes to mind is the question that if everything that is being done at AHS is truly being done with the student’s best interest in mind. There are things that can tip the argument either way, even though the majority of things done are the positive for the students. There are times however when decisions made by a variety of people seem to be for either personal reasons, or a previously set idea, where no matter what students, parents, or even administrators say would seem to change their preset minds. This is when the student’s best interest should be the most important thing stressed, and personal feelings towards a situation should be left out.

The student’s best interest is something that can be brought up when I see teachers talk negatively about students, and talking about the negatives of their job. If a teacher’s job is to truly inspire students, then why say those things? It isn’t important where I saw this or even who said it, that’s not the point. The point is that change can only happen if everyone involved is all in.

This year’s senior class has had a total of two superintendents, and four principals, and with them a wide variety of rules and expectations. To say it has been a roller coaster would be an understatement. It has been both good and bad, and has surely affected the way that the senior class acts and looks at things.

The mood has seemed to slowly dissipate again, as the teachers and student leaders of the school have worked hard to keep students involved, something that we haven’t had the past few years. This habit that seemed to hang over Alliance for a while is starting to go away, but there will be times where it creeps back up and the students must work hard to stay positive. It is something that takes a whole town’s support, which has improved since last year, but there can always be more.

I can honestly say that for at the first time in the years I’ve been in Alliance High, the school now has solid administration in place, and I see bright things coming for the school and community. But again, the upward trend that I am proud to be a part of can only keep ascending if we are all committed. Great things can come to Alliance, but not without the help of us all.