11/12/09

Pilot program seeks to hone skills of High School student leaders

The leaders of tomorrow are attending high school today. If they attend Cape Elizabeth High School, there's a good chance they are getting some training in those leadership skills.

High School Principal Jeff Shedd announced a pilot program at the school where students who have leadership positions, or who have exhibited leadership skills, are nominated by teachers or coaches to participate in the program. Rippleffect, an adventure-based leadership training program based at Cow Island, is assisting in the program, Shedd told members of the School Board at their October meeting.

"We give kids a lot of leadership positions but we don't really do a lot to sort of train them for what it takes to be an effective leader. That's really what the goal is," Shedd told members of the board.

Shedd said the pilot was developed in collaboration with Jeff Thoreck, athletic director, as well as Assistant Principal Troy Henninger and Middle School physical education teacher Andy Strout. A total of 33 students, an even mix of sophomores, juniors and seniors, have been able to participate. "We have lots of wonderful students and we want to provide opportunities to a lot, but we also want to recognize that our capacity to was limited, so we had to work around some constraints," Shedd said.

Some fruits of the program are already evident, said Shedd. An example is this year's spirit week, where High Schoolers hone their school spirit through a series of activities including rallies, decorating of school hallways and attendance at fall sporting events.

One of the board's High School student representatives described this year's spirit week as the best he'd seen, and Shedd concurred. "I have never seen as many students involved in those hallway decorating, I mean, there had to be 80-90 students in and out at various times and they were just having a lot of fun," Shedd said.

Similarly, nearly every student came, dressed in school maroon, to the spirit week assembly, where Shedd saw a number of student leaders who in past years had not attended.

The leadership program, Shedd said, may not have been completely responsible for the success of spirit week, but he does think it played at least a small role, and "it gave me some encouragement that perhaps we are heading in the right direction."

Thoreck, at the November School Board meeting, also said he has been impressed with the enthusiasm shown by Cape High students at sporting events this year. In his monthly report to the board, Thoreck gave an example of a recent football game against Mt. Valley: "It's nice to see a student section, students cheering appropriately, and having a great time with it," Thoreck said. He credited senior leadership for the student support, and said he hoped underclassmen would follow.

Shedd admitted there will be bumps along the way, and that administrators and teachers are learning along with the students. "We will make mistakes," he said. "But, again I see it as planting the seeds for something I really hope will take root - and over a period of years - if we can begin to have some successes with it," Shedd said.