By Edwin Sanchez Garcia,
Staff Writer.
With a new principal and new school year there comes some big changes. Santa Rosa High School’s new principal Dr. Mark Ryan has decided to initiate some new policies that he hopes will last for many years to come. One of his biggest projects for SRHS is his new “Positive Panther Points,” an award system which he created this year. Ryan hopes that with this new system in place, it will encourage students to behave, work harder and most importantly become more responsible.
Of course, students can’t be expected to earn points just for the sake of having points; it can’t work if there is no purpose to working towards getting the points in the first place. They need to have some type of use. That’s where perks and incentives come in: students will have that extra push to earn points, since people might be more inclined to get them if the more hot-ticket items are made as rewards for which the points can be exchanged to receive.
“There’s a lot of things you can cash them in for, like homecoming [tickets],” said Ryan. Other possible rewards include prom tickets, gift cards and even a free or discounted yearbook. Ryan has made the effort to make getting Positive Panther Points worth your while by having a wide variety of different rewards for which one can exchange them with prices varying.
To make these prizes obtainable, Ryan has created different ways in which students can earn Positive Panther Points, many of which have to do with completing academic tasks such as writing your homework in your planner. He also alluded to the possibility of the prices of the reward fluctuating in response to people perhaps cashing in their points too often or too little. “There will be some inflation, deflation,” said Ryan.
With it being a work in progress, it’s possible that the system will change over time, but what matters most is that the Positive Panther Points serve their purpose as a way to encourage students to succeed in and out of school by being rewarded for their efforts.
