Student ID’s issued during homeroom

With suggestions from both parents and students about student id cards, administration has finally spoke with photographer Dean Stewart and has handed them out to all homerooms on Wednesday Jan. 25. "There's no charge for them, the photographer does them complimentary for us," dean Catherine Halbuer said. "It turned out to also be beneficial because a lot of kids take the SAT and ACT, and they go to other schools to do that and they don't have picture id's, and they need that to take the test." "Some kids were also saying that there's discounts out in the community for students," Halbuer continued. "We are not going to require [students] to carry them around. What's really neat is they all have a bar code that can be read, and it has your student number on it. So if you scan it on the keypad in the cafeteria, it'll [scan] your number." With all of the pros that the new cards come with, they also raise concerns with profits according to principal Rick Flemming. "It's always been a hot topic, in a lot of schools," principal Rick Flemming said. "I Love the idea of student id's, the problem is that the cost of maintaining equipment for doing those things , also the added responsibility of yet another duty for a staff member that they normally wouldn't have. You also have the reoccurring cost of what the student id's are going to be, so you buy the machine all of a sudden the next year they say 'We've got the student id 2.0, you have to buy this year.' And then this becomes a cost issue." "And if students loose their id and they need a new one, are we going to get the photographer from Dean Stewart out here every time someone needs a new id?" Flemming continues. "[Halbuer] found a way with Dean Stewart that it might minimize the job responsibility of somebody here along with the associated cost of doing it. These are all concerns I have." By Valery Linkenhoker
January 31, 2017

The administration recently order ID cards for the student body after receiving requests from both parents and students. The cards were distributed during homeroom Wednesday.

“There’s no charge for them, the photographer does them complimentary for us,” Assistant Principal Catherine Halbuer said. “It turned out to also be beneficial because a lot of kids take the SAT and ACT, and they go to other schools to do that and they don’t have picture ID’s, and they need that to take the test.

“Some kids were also saying that there’s discounts out in the community for students,” Halbuer continued. “We are not going to require [students] to carry them around. What’s really neat is they all have a bar code that can be read, and it has your student number on it. So if you scan it on the keypad in the cafeteria, it’ll [scan] your number.”

With all of the pros that the new cards come with, they also raise some concerns.

“It’s always been a hot topic in a lot of schools,” Principal Rick Fleming said. “I Love the idea of student ID’s, the problem is that the cost of maintaining equipment for doing those things, also the added responsibility of yet another duty for a staff member that they normally wouldn’t have. You also have the reoccurring cost of what the student ID’s are going to be, so you buy the machine all of a sudden the next year they say ‘We’ve got the student ID 2.0 you have to buy this year.’ And then this becomes a cost issue.”

“And if students lose their id and they need a new one, are we going to get the photographer from Dean Stewart out here every time someone needs a new ID?” Fleming continues. “[Mrs. Halbuer] found a way with Dean Stewart that might minimize the job responsibility of somebody here along with the associated cost of doing it. These are all concerns I have.”

Seniors have not yet received IDs, but they will receive them next month.

By Valery Linkenhoker