Mt. Tahoma Offers Extra Support for Students

As Dean of Students at Mount Tahoma High School, I work in partnership with our school administration and counseling team to support the needs of students and staff across the building. One effort I have been involved in to provide additional student support is offering monthly Saturday School for our students. On these days we have instructional and counseling staff come in to provide students with extra academic instruction along with the opportunity to make-up tests and assignments. We would like to develop this as a resource that is regularly utilized throughout the school year.

Balancing six different courses can be overwhelming, especially for students who need to make up classwork or are prone to falling behind. Additionally, our instructional staff has a finite amount of time to support the needs of the many students they engage with. Our Saturday Schools are intended to provide additional time and support to students in need while enabling teachers to encourage this resource to supplement their academic instruction.

We were very pleased with well over one hundred students turning out for our first two Saturday School dates in January, and this was a great end of the semester resource for students and faculty. These students were able to receive additional preparation ahead of finals and make-up work ahead of the end of the semester.  

We would love to see more volunteers engage in supporting students in our building. This could be in the form of athletic coaching, tutoring, or support for our clubs and after-school activities. We are fortunate in that we have programs for extended support present in our building such as the College Success Foundation, Upward Bound, Communities in Schools, and Treehouse.”

 


Nick Parks is the Dean of Students at Mount Tahoma High School.