Feature Photo By: Caroline Smith – Campus monitor James Dolmas waits for students to walk through the front door so he is able to check IDs.
If you’re a sophomore, junior, or senior who expected to have to get a principal’s pass this year, you may have been surprised at the unexpected change. This 2018-2019 school year, principal’s passes were dropped. Originally, they were required in order to leave the school.
To acquire a pass, students had to have a minimum unweighted grade point average of 2.75, less than 10 unexcused absences, and no disciplinary action. Students had to maintain these expectations throughout each quarter to have the pass.
Sophomore Angela Turner commented, “Coming into sophomore year, I was ready to have permission to leave the campus during my lunch period. When school started and still didn’t hear anything about the passes, I assumed there would be no such thing as principal passes this year.”
When the passes were used, campus monitors and members of administration would stand at all doors checking passes when students would leave and come back from lunch.
So the big question is: why did the passes get cut from Rangeview’s school system?
“Our administration are all on lunch duty,” Anne Wolfe, secretary and office manager of Rangeview stated. “Our campus monitors are on the outside making sure that those students are being watched, so it’s really hard — we don’t have the manpower to be at every single door in this school.”
Senior Jordan Higgs thought that principal’s passes weren’t necessary and they shouldn’t be brought back.
Higgs said, “I feel like it’s less stress for the people at the front of the school and it’s less stress for the students.”
She explained that if students didn’t have a pass or weren’t able to get a pass, then school food would be the only other option.
Higgs commented that not everyone likes school food, “so you’re basically starving yourself because you don’t have a sticker.”
It’s been said by many students that passes shouldn’t be part of Rangeview’s system anymore.
Based on the requirements, Higgs said, “You should already be motivated to do your best in school anyways, you shouldn’t be motivated by a sticker.”
Christy Hartford, one of Rangeview’s assistant principals, said that anyone is now allowed to leave campus, including freshmen.
“Everyone can leave. If we do start to see a dip in attendance though, we’ll retract the open campus and start policing again,” Hartford stated.
Campus monitors and members of administration are cracking down on checking ID’s, strictly just because there aren’t principal’s passes this year.
This is the first year principal passes were not required by all students.
“I don’t know if we’d use principal’s passes again,” Wolfe said. “That’s strictly a decision made by our administration, so sometimes I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
