In place of the annual Fall Recognition Assembly, the SPA administration has decided to announce student achievements before senior speeches.

The change took place on Jan. 18, the first senior speech assembly of the new year. Principal Max Delgado elaborates on the decision.

“It’s not that the old fall recognition model didn’t work, but rather that we were interested in exploring a model that integrated student recognition into the flow of regular assemblies as opposed to compartmentalizing them into a separate event. Ideally, celebrating success is part of the regular flow of assemblies — we see this as an extended version of what Spartan Boosters has done in the past, for instance,” Delgado said.

In years past, there has been some dissent among students towards the lengthiness of the assemblies and lack of recognition for all. Academic Dean Tom Anderson addresses that here.

“It was a way of recognizing that for some kids, it felt like it was just a big, long slog of other kids getting recognized and not getting recognized themselves. We thought that it might keep people’s attention and focus on the achievements that kids are being honored for if we did it in shorter, digestible chunks,” Anderson said.

Faculty members who wish to announce student achievements speak briefly at the beginning of assemblies for the department they manage. For example, Fine Arts Department Chair Daryn Lowman recognizes students for their artistic achievements and competitions they have won, such as the Scholastic Art Awards.

As the school moves forward through the semester, more awards will be slowly announced.

The current format shows promise, and Delgado hopes to continue it into future years.

“We feel good about the model, and while the spring recognition may look like the old model, we will likely shift towards this model for the 2019-2020 school year given the positive feedback we’ve received,” he said.