In the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year at Kenwood High School new policies were implemented in hopes of addressing issues from the previous year. During the summer, the Kenwood leadership team worked together to create new policies. The biggest policy changes include the addition of an advisory, bathroom procedures, and three versus four lunch shifts, along with the new BCPS cell phone policy.
One of the biggest changes was the addition of an advisory every Wednesday. Kenwood English teacher Mr. Flavin has taken a lead on planning and implementing the advisory goals this year. The goal of advisory is to help “students develop a set of skills that enable them to embrace rigorous Academics, foster and build student-to-student relationships among peers, strengthen adult-to-student connections to develop relationships in ways that build trust; to develop student communication/social skills to improve self-advocacy and confidence,” shares Mr. Flavin.
Advisory takes place every Wednesday during second period from 10:40-11:00 and goes by the name Vibe Time. “There is an overall data trend that says kids who are in a group really achieve well,” Principal Smith adds, “But truly, it’s like, take a pause in your day, to have the opportunity to connect.” The advisory lessons mostly follow soft skill themes including communication, resolving conflict, and other life skills needed outside the classroom.
Another change brought about by the school was the new bathroom policies. At the beginning of the 2025- 2026 school year a rule was brought up that only five students were allowed to be in the bathroom at once. Ms. Smith adds, “By limiting the number of people who are in the bathroom, it allows us to pinpoint if something happens that shouldn’t happen and provide accountability and hopefully not have it happen again.”
Lastly, came changes with the lunch shifts. At the start of this year the MPR was once again opened, which allowed students to either choose to eat a hot meal in the main cafeteria or pack a lunch and go to the MPR for a more chill space to eat in. “Between the main cafeteria and the MPR, the capacity number allowed me to split and only do three lunch shifts.” Ms Smith adds, “But it is also helping with the amount of kids in the hallway.”
Though it may be easy to assume new policies came from administration, it was actually a mix of administrators and groups of teachers that chose to sit in the school for longer than they were getting paid for to make sure that the student body are able to have the most opportunities to find a sense of belonging, earn good grades, and feel at home in a safe environment.
As Principal of Kenwood High School, Ms. Smith took teachers and students’ commentary into consideration very highly, “If I presented an idea and the team was like, eh, I kind of just let it go. It was no longer important to me if the kids and teachers were like, ‘that doesn’t work for me for this reason’. “
We hope these changes can lead to positive outcomes and a successful school year.
