Frustrations With Communication

The communication gap between West Sound Tech and Central Kitsap High School.

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Kaylynn Serna-Weaber

Alexander Valenzuela, a senior at Central Kitsap HS and welder at West Sound Tech.

There is a number of junior and senior students that attend half days at Central Kitsap High School. These students go to West Sound Tech in Bremerton. At West Sound tech and Olympic college students get a great advance in your future. West Sound Tech is a career center, some classes there include: Cosmetology, Nursing, Welding, Automotive Technology, and Criminal Justice. In order to be an active student in both schools, you would need to have everyday information about the school day from CK and WST.

One very big issue that comes along with this career advantage though, is the lack of communication the students that attend both CK and WST are receiving. Or in this case according to the students, barely receiving.

Alexander Valenzuela, a senior at Central Kitsap, attends West Sound Tech for welding for periods 1-3. Valenzuela the communication between his two schools. More in depth, he was asked if he gets all the information he needs from Central Kitsap during school days. His response was, “I think it could use a little bit of refining. There’s definitely some miscommunication but near the end of the year it got a little better. It’s not always the school’s fault, students should check Google Classroom.” In simple terms, both the students and schools should take responsibility in getting all the information they need.

These students want a change in how their schedule for the day is distributed. Kailyn Hague mentioned how their communication for the students could improved, she responded saying this, ““Maybe if both offices talked to each other or emailed about the agendas.” To her it feels like the offices aren’t communicating well enough for them to even tell the students what they need to know. When thinking about it, a good and stable ground of communication would be the school offices.

While these students attend classes at West Sound Tech for first through third periods, they do not hear the morning announcements.The morning announcements are a main source of their bulletin of the day. Hague says “I’d feel like I wouldn’t be left out as much and more comfortable.”

Both students that were interviewed seemed to agree that they do feel a bit left out from CK. They both have missed events at CK due to not being informed of the schedule..

Kailyn Hague said “Yes. And I do feel like I missed out on a lot at CK.” Without a solid knowledge of the information every day, West Sound tech students can miss a lot of the action at Central Kitsap.

Kaylynn Serna-Weaber
Senior Kailyn Hague attends West Sound Tech for Cosmetology.

Alexander Valenzuela gave an example of an important date that he and his fellow classmates had missed, “One of the senior [class] photos. I was notified by a student at CK while the photos were being taken. Alongside of my fellow WST peers.”Although there were a few times the photo was retaken because of this, there was not a source of information from anyone except for one reshoot.

Kailyn Hague had also missed out on some events at CK. She said “I’ve missed morning assemblies, voting during tutorial, I didn’t know about the senior meeting and mock crash times until last minute.”

These are big things for the graduating class to be a part of. It’s their last year after all. They want to feel as though they can be a part of almost everything in their last year.

One source that is open for students to use is the Central Kitsap calendar on their website. Although this is available, the students feel as though they need an easy source that tells them exactly what is going on everyday.

A solution to this problem could be posting the morning announcements in Google Classroom everyday. Or a simple sheet of paper distributed the day before at CK with times, dates, and events going on at CK. Students could easily stick that in their binder and be good to go.

The students just want to be informed and involved. There are many solutions that can make everyone happy just with a little improvement. This way it would be easier for everyone.