Looking back on the 2023-24 school year, there have been several highlights. Between clubs, activities, and classes, students have been hard at work all year. As we draw to the end of the year, it is important to reflect and think about next year. There are always things to improve upon, here’s what 42Fifty is looking forward to in the coming school year.
“We partner with a variety of outside consultants to enhance the student experience,” said OH Principal Christopher Grays.
The school has worked tirelessly in collaboration with the district, state administration, and the community to improve OH.
“We conducted walkthroughs. I know we have done a phenomenal job with the district office with trying to survey our students, specifically our high school students and both OH and OEHS, to amplify that student voice so that way we can consider the voice of the students when making decisions,” said Grays.
One of the biggest areas of change for next year is the OH Athletics Department. Countless improvements are being made to improve the lives of our student-athletes from infrastructure to the addition of new sports.
“Lacrosse is coming on in the spring for boys and girls. It will be a JV team, and we will co-op the first year with OE,” said Assistant Athletic Director Mark Johnson, adding “The IHSA has approved flag football for next year, we’re not an IHSA sport yet though, [the school is] going to run it like an intramural club.”
The OH Athletics Department is adding several more sports next year, including girls wrestling and lacrosse. Girls wrestling became an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) sanctioned sport in 2022 and has been wildly popular ever since. This year, girls wrestling was offered as a club, but with growing numbers, it will become an officially sanctioned sport offered by OH next year.
Aside from new sports being introduced, the Athletics Department is also working to improve the athletics amenities and facilities. While the outdoor track was sadly incomplete for this season, it is expected to be completed for the 2024-25 school year and final improvements will be made on the tennis courts during the summer.
“Because [the construction company] ran out of time, [the tennis courts] need to be painted,” said Johnson. “Once the boys season is over, they will put a clear coat on it and repaint them blue and orange. They are going to do that in June so it will be ready for the girls season.”
The expansion and support of athletics are important to garnering successful seasons for the various teams at OH. We hope to see more of these improvements in future years as OH takes on its next wave of athletic ventures.
Sports are not the only things we are hoping to see next year, as we hope to see that the school community improves as a whole. One way this is possible is through the Superintendent Advisory Committee, which unifies Oswego parents, teachers, administrators, and students under one common goal: bettering the entire district for next year.
“We are always trying to look at opportunities to embed the voices of students into things that we do because sometimes I think it gets lost in everything that we are doing,” said Grays.
42fifty is looking forward to the expansion of this committee and hopes to see a diverse and exciting group for next year. Having representatives from all groups in the building is crucial to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all students.
“We have a good handle on curriculum and things like that but as far as the voice of students, I can see, I can support, we have the standards but this is how I learn,” said Grays. “So how can we mesh these together to ensure that students have the best experiences from a curriculum standpoint [as well as] from a safety and security standpoint for just their total experience here at the high school.”
In addition to implementing ways to hear the voices of the diverse student body, OH has added several new classes including American Sign Language (ASL) and Black History. These classes aim to cater to the variety of students’ interests at OH.
“We have quite a bit of kids signed up, there’s about maybe 140 kids signed up,” said Department Chair of World Languages Holly Fournier.
These classes are a major stepping stone to implementing DEI initiatives with student interest in mind. Surrounding districts have also implemented classes like these into their course catalogs with SD 308 following suit. These classes offer a fresh take on classes that cater to the student body’s interests. We hope to see the continuation and addition of diverse options for our students in the coming years.
“I think it’s good for kids to just have choices and understand language as a whole, like there is spoken language and a whole other language that’s just not spoken, it’s another set of skills just like any other language,” said Fournier.
With collaboration between students, parents, and the district, we are sure that the school community will flourish next year and greatly improve the lives of our students. With all the fantastic improvements made during the first 60 years of OH being open, we cannot wait to see what else the school can accomplish in future years.
42Fifty is the student media Publication of Oswego High School, Oswego, IL. Stories attributed to 42Fifty are written by editorial staff, or in the case of staff editorial, reflect a quorum of the student staff's ideas and opinions. To learn more about the 42Fifty staff, please see the About or Our Staff page on the website.
