Portage, Indiana | Students from Portage High School have been selected to participate in a special focus group to discuss what measures should be taken to make Portage an “ideal” high school. Hosted by Portage Township Schools Superintendent, Dr. Amanda Alaniz, three meetings will be held in the days leading up to the district’s winter break in the high school’s LGI room.

The focus group coincides with a recent community push to address the needs of Portage High School students and staff. Students like Skyler Riley, junior, see this as an opportunity for the district to listen to what students and staff need at Portage High School.

“I have hopes that they will listen to what students are saying,” Riley said. “Especially when it comes to the school-administered iPads and AP and general education classes.”

Riley said that the school-administered iPads have been an ongoing issue in not only her three years at Portage High School, but also her time at Willowcreek Middle School.

“I’ve had the same iPad since I was in sixth grade,” Riley said. “It barely works. And with finals coming up and final essays and projects due, students who don’t have computers at home and rely on the iPads as a way to get their work done are struggling.”

And while Riley and other students praise the district for their efforts to address the real concerns of students and staff, there is hesitation that steps to make Portage High School an “ideal” school will fall flat.

“How can we strive to be the ‘ideal’ school when the foundations of our education aren’t being met?” Riley said.

The focus group will meet Monday, December 12th, Wednesday, December 14th, and Thursday, December 15th.