Starting in the 2025-26 school year, Assistant Principal Kurt Schommer plans to implement the Assistant Principal Advisory Committee. This will be a new club that will meet once monthly and will aim to create a bridge between teachers and students, more specifically, the problems that they are facing.
“I want the students to have a voice in the school. I want them to see what’s going on in day-to-day operations. I also want to see what are things that we can look at and maybe adjust to find a better way to do them. It’s really a way just to help our school to improve and run smoother,” Schommer said.
In terms of who can apply, it’s anyone. Schommer encourages everyone who wants to make a difference in the school to join and hopes to have a wide variety of students on the committee.
“I’d like to have three to five members from each grade level, but I don’t want just the athletes. I don’t want just the straight A students. I want the students who may be experiencing some difficulties in some way, and I want this to be open to everybody,” Schommer said.
One of the applicants is freshman Alana Aldaz, who hopes to join the board to improve the school and her own involvement in the school.
“I chose to apply because I want to be heard about what needs improving at this school. I think being able to share my opinions as a student can be very helpful. Also, being in this committee can help me develop better leadership and responsibility skills,” Aldaz said.
This idea of leadership is also something that Schommer stresses. Connecting with other students to share input on problems and find solutions is a skill applicable decades after high school.
“Another reason is that I just wanted to connect with students more on a different level. I believe that leadership is really important, and this is something that I want to teach within the committee,” Schommer said.
It’s not just the students who will give input; teachers will also share the problems that they see, and then these problems will be shared with the committee. From here, it’s up to them to convey the teachers’ message to the student body.
“Having the school be more connected and allowing people to see from different perspectives will help everyone at the school,” junior Makayla Trochinski said. “I feel like in Berlin, not a lot of people see it that way, and it tears down the student-teacher bonding because we feel we are different, but we are all human.”
