Preparation For College/Life

I was at a meeting yesterday and a comment was made that we may not be doing enough to prepare students for college level courses- that we are not demanding enough of our students academically in high school. Many believe there needs to be more of an emphasis placed on higher order thinking skills, research papers and independent study in high school. How prepared do you feel for college? Some of you take college courses right now. Do you feel that you are on par with your college classmates? Do you feel that you are at a disadvantage in some ways? What is being done to prepare you for the "real world"? What more should be done at the high school level to prepare students for life beyond 12th grade?

Are our schools safe?

In light of the two recent school shootings, I wanted to know how you feel about safety in school. Are we safe? Is anyone really safe? What should be done to make our schools safer? Many schools are installing metal detectors to check for weapons. Many of you mentioned the issue of safety when responding to the posting on cell phones. We have an open campus here. Should that be changed? How can we all work together to make sure we are safe?