Leadership students are gathering into groups this semester to identify systems within the community that they believe are broken in an attempt to come up with possible solutions.

Amy Learn, Leadership teacher, introduced a systems thinking method of solving problems at the beginning of second semester. Each team of four or five is instructed to identify a problem in the school, district, or community. The end goal is for the students, as leaders, to have an understanding of what the entire system is and the problem that exists in order to make the solution become suitable without causing more problems.

The group of Jordan Peters (12), Emily Miskovic (12), Sarah Stich (12), and Amanda Nichting (12) decided Kagan was something they wanted to fix. Their original thought was in regard to the debt that is within the district and to find alternative ways to save money. As they researched they found that Kagan training cost a lot of money for representatives to come and train teachers. There have been complaints about Kagan from students and teachers.

“We chose Kagan because it is a system within our district that affects everyone involved in the district and also feeds into the debt of the district,” Misovic said.

The group of Jenna Pleimann (12), Logan Sullivan (12), Destanie Garrett (12), and Jenna Brady (12) chose ACT prep classes as their system. They feel that OHS has little ACT prep and it is all self taught. They did some looking at different schools such as Seckman and Vianney to compare differences. Their goal is to get ACT prep as an elective or at least as a after-school program with a paid instructor offered at OHS for all grades. Also, they want it to be mandatory for teachers to include ACT prep questions within their lessons throughout the year.

“The ACT does matter to all students. It doesn’t matter how smart or rich you are,” Pleimann said. “The results you get on the ACT will affect what colleges you get into and what scholarships you receive”.

Leadership classes will be presenting to the school administrators when students return from spring break.

“I think it’s very important as young leaders that if something bothers us, that’s an indication that we need to ask questions,” Learn said.