Communication at Akins High School is in desperate need of re-evaluation.

I thought that STEM students were being put on a higher pedestal than the rest of the other academies. It had seemed that they were being offered certain AP classes earlier than the rest of us. It didn’t appear fair to me because we are all just as equally capable of taking the tough classes, and they were just not giving us the chance.

However, with further investigation into the issue I found I was wrong. It’s not a matter of the STEM students being a higher priority. It’s that communication at Akins is greatly lacking.

When I spoke with school improvement facilitator Regina McGough about AP class availability, I discovered that last year the earlier AP classes being offered strictly to STEM kids was a test run to see how successful the classes could be.

McGough explained that the AP classes are now available for everyone.

However I never heard any whisper of this. The academy counselors are supposed to inform us about these classes when we sign up for our new classes at the end of the school year.

Had the information from the counselors been communicated, I could be taking these AP classes and challenging myself.

I understand that the counselors have a lot on their plate with hundreds of kids to take care of and watch over. That being said though, they need to work on a plan to figure out a way to communicate better with the students in their respective academies.

The announcements during advisory are not enough. Many students cannot hear the announcements on the intercom or just block them out because they don’t pertain to them. There should be one place that students can go online to keep up with all important announcements so they can make sure they are not missing something important.

If the school is really serious about having us succeed and do our best, then they need to communicate these kinds of things with us.

It’s the school’s responsibility to make sure we are aware of all the opportunities open to us. Without good communication it’s not going to happen.