Situations

Here's the scoop:

    Riverdale Middle School, with an enrollment of 600 students (seventh and eighth grades), is the public middle school in the small town of Riverdale, Vermont.   The town is quiet, everyone knows their neighbors, and the school has never had problems with gangs or drugs.

    As you read the following situations, please keep a few questions in the back of your mind:

1.  What does each candidate plan to do about the issue?

2.  Can the situation be modified so that everyone is happy, or must a choice be made to satisfy one group more than another?

Situation 1:  The school is considering adopting a policy which would force all students to wear uniforms.  This has never been done at Riverdale or any other school in the district.  It is obvious that not many of the students want a strict dress code, but most parents and administrators do.

Situation 2:  School dances have been held at the Riverdale Pavilion (a local park district facility) for as long as anyone can remember.  The school has always rented the facility from the park district and paid for it from the money generated by ticket sales to the dances.  In recent years, however, dance attendance has been dropping and the school is now considering moving the dances to the school's gym to keep costs down.  The facilities at the Pavilion are much more spacious and have a better sound system than does the gym, and the students do not like the idea of having dances at the school.

Situation 3:  The school has always kept vending machines on during the school day, but due to what the school refers to as "a large increase in hallway trash", they plan to have the machines on only during lunch periods and after school.  The school insists it will not change its mind unless the litter problem is controlled and they have a concrete plan where it will not happen again.  If the problem persists, the school says all machines will be turned off until after school.

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