Student Forum: Collinwood High School has played a big role in my success

My name is Tamera Harris and I will be a senior at Collinwood High School this upcoming 2013-2014 school year. I am also a part of a Post Secondary Enrollment Options program (PSEOP) called High Tech Academy where high school students in the CMSD take college courses at Cuyahoga Community College.

The sports or extracurricular activities that I have participated in are volleyball, a math competition, student council and a battle of the classes competition. At Tri-C I had volunteered to participate in a mentoring program for middle school students at St. Adalbert Catholic School but the program couldn't be completed.

Although Collinwood is an investment school it has played a big role in my success and achievements. There were many staff members who encouraged me to do better and who were very helpful in keeping me on the right path. Teachers have volunteered to help with any work that I was given from Tri-C that I was having trouble completing. My guidance counselor always made sure that things were going well for me and she kept me updated on new opportunities such as internships or programs that helped with tests like the ACT or the SAT.

Having Collinwood as an investment school may actually have a positive outcome as long as they are finding out from the students what it is they feel should be changed or isn't being done correctly. Cleveland's Plan for Transforming Schools is going to affect the students more than anyone, which means that their opinion is the most valuable.Instead of asking for our opinions in the form of a survey, the district should have employees come out to our school and talk to our students. I read that they were going to bring in new teachers and principals, retrain old teachers, give special attention to the schools' weak areas and require more classtime.

Having students spend more time in school is not going to make them preform better academically, instead it may do the exact opposite.

I just hope that everyone plays their part and things change for the better in the CMSD.