Students in the first-period Law course, taught by Eric Oddo, were given the opportunity to meet with the administration to discuss ideas for improvement within Niles West and District 219 on Monday, September 18. Principal Jeremy Christian, Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther, Director of Athletics Dana Krilich and Director of Student Activities Caitlin Lucci were all present at the meeting.

“The purpose of the visit was to discuss the ‘create your own law activity’ students completed. There were three categories of laws: national, state and local policies and procedures of Niles West. The administrators spent the entire class period visiting with the students and hearing their feedback about changes Niles West could make to improve the overall student experience,” Oddo said.

Prior to the meeting with the administration, all class periods were able to create their own laws that they came to a consensus with as a group, and then presented a list to the class. Then, the list was presented on Monday to administrators in the first-period class. 

Krilich enjoyed coming to Oddo’s class and hearing ideas from students.

“It was such an honor to be invited to Mr. Oddo’s Law class and talk with students about ideas they have to improve some policies at Niles West. As a former history teacher, I always love hearing students use their voice (and First Amendment rights) to offer feedback on their school experience. I also miss being in the classroom, so it was great to get out of my office,” Krilich said.

Christian was able to work closely with the class, discussing possible ideas like bell schedules, athletes not being obligated to take a P.E. course during their season, longer passing periods, more lenient tardy rules and being able to stay off campus during study halls. 

“The ideas that were presented in Mr. Oddo’s class were absolutely phenomenal. I am thoroughly impressed by everything that the students came up with and I think that they have not only good ideas, but there are some immediate ideas that we can consider, and even if we are not able to implement them immediately, we can at least consider them in the future,” Christian said.

Students found the meeting beneficial in many ways.

“I felt like having the administrators come in and talk was a great way for me and my classmate’s voices to be heard. As a senior, I felt like it was the first time someone in charge actually took the time to listen to our concerns and opinions. I think this practice of administrators coming into classes can help students feel empowered about changes they would like to see in our school,” senior Faiza Gulzar said.

Giving suggestions for our school can be nerve-wracking. Yet, students felt at ease when talking in the meeting.

“The presence of the principal and directors showed that they cared about improving student educational experience and they seemed to be very open to suggestions,” Gulzar said.

Senior Ericka Ortiz was able to speak about several topics during the meeting and is thankful for her experience.

“It was very nice of them to take their time to speak to us and want to know our opinion on what we think about our school rules, and to be willing to work with us to do something about it,” Ortiz said.

Lucci was impressed by the student’s suggestions. As a new member of the West community, Lucci found it very helpful to get to talk to students in the classroom and to gain insight into the pulse of the student body.

“As the Student Activities Director, it’s very important that I’m able to advocate for what students value, whether that’s something small like a Homecoming theme, or on a larger scale like the structure of the school day. I’m grateful for the opportunity to come in and participate with the Law students,” Lucci said.

Along with Lucci, Parnther is looking forward to a possible follow-up with these students and appreciates the time they spent together.

“The experience was great. I really appreciated the opportunity to receive direct feedback from our students. Furthermore, I was able to see how much work [the] class had put into the proposals to solicit change in the future. I hope that we can continue to have these opportunities to learn from each other. I will be sharing some feedback with our dean team as well. I would love to come back in the future with our deans or other administrators for a follow-up meeting,” Parnther said.

Principal Christian emphasizes that the process of making plans is dependent on whether those changes are school-specific or if they’re more relative to the district.

“If it’s school [specific], what I’d love to do is meet with all our student government and our student leadership teams. I’d like for them to look at the ideas and then figure out how they can bring the ideas to our administration team and our teachers to figure out how we can put them into place. If it’s something like changing the cost of lunch, that’s more of a district thing, so I’d have to get our students together, and then I would have to take that information to [Tom Moore], our superintendent, to navigate what we need to do from there,” Christian said.

“I am very proud of my students for being so honest and open about their experiences at Niles West. I also appreciate Mr. Christian, Dr. Krilich, Ms. Lucci and Mr. Parnther giving up their valuable time during their workdays to visit the first-period Law class. They seem genuinely committed to reviewing the proposals the law students created and willing to incorporate some of these suggestions into the West experience,” Oddo said.