As freshmen are getting settled into the routine of high school, everyone else is adjusting to major changes in their lives as well. So far, the 2016-2017 school year has undergone changes that the campus has never or has not seen in years, including a new principal, schedule, staff, FIT five times a week, and more.

Stepping into the role as interim principal with all these new changes on hand was not something principal Susan Leos was worried about handling.

“I feel very fortunate because I could draw upon my experience at Bowie the last seven years as an assistant principal and the Academic Dean,” Leos said. “I am lucky to have been a part of so much already.”

With confidence in herself and the school, Leos is determined to support her facility.

“Bowie has a long history of academic accomplishments and has always lived up to its motto of ‘Pride in Performance’,” Leos said. “I intend to support our staff and students in being all that we can be as a community of learners.”

But her initial plans for the new year is to not drastically change the way things are done this year, but rather move everything in a positive direction for the benefit of all.

“My intention is not to change anything about Bowie,” Leos said. “I only want our students to realize that as Bowie is part of the larger universe, our state, our country, and our world, we must base all of our actions and decisions on the foundation of respect.”

Leos aims to get everyone involved and to participate when it comes to the learning community as a whole.

“Student voice, the voices of our teachers, and parent participation in the learning process are all important to me as an individual and as an educator,” Leos said. “The work we all put in together is what will really make a difference.”

Before she was hired as the interim principal, Leos had entirely different responsibilities.

“In my previous position, I worked with all of our academic programs, supporting all kinds of classes and helping teachers develop their own best practices, which in turn supports all of our Bowie students from freshmen to seniors,” Leos said.

Despite working directly with teachers, Leos helped with behind the scenes as well.

“I also worked within all kinds of systems like professional development, mentoring students, improving our technology, working with extracurricular programs, and building our master schedule,” Leos said.

Through training, learning about different systems and parts of the faculty, Leos is continuing to better herself for the principal position.

“I am learning about new systems like our facilities management and our central office personnel who help us in many unseen ways starting with budgeting and paying for our teachers’ salaries and the materials we all use every day,” Leos said.

One major adjustments that Leos has put into action isn’t something she has a choice about. According to Leos, it was the law that led to the entirely new bell schedule and A/B calendar changes.

“Due to a new state law that measures the school day in minutes instead of the number of days,” Leos said, “Many Texas schools had to change their bell schedules this year, which lengthened the day for Bowie.”

Besides the law causing the schedule change, AISD schools have all been put on the same schedule to be able to support the Student Sharing initiative, a system that allows students to take elective classes at different neighboring schools.

“The new A/B day schedule is confusing since the Friday’s do not rotate orderly,” senior Co-Student Council President, Dawson Warnken said. “It makes B-day act like the A-day in some cases and confuses some people as to what is due each day.”

Along with the schedule, holding FIT every day is a change that is intended to support student learning as well as keeping the students’ benefit in mind.

“Increasing the number of FIT days supports our students at Bowie, giving them more time to catch up, get extra help, or go to enrichment FIT classes,” Leos said.

From what Leos and Warnken have heard, the feedback from students and teachers has been a positive one.

“I think that the new schedule change is good and FIT everyday will benefit greatly,” Warnken said. “As for the new administrators and teachers, I know they will do the best job that they can do and help our Bowie community as much as they can.”

However, things like the consistent A/B schedule have been something teachers are having to work around.

“There is definitely concern about how the schedule will affect instructional time, with certain A or B days getting ahead of one another,” Assistant Principal Marie Prescott said.

This leads to teachers having to chnage their schedule lessons weekly, affecting the way the students will learn, get the information, and scheduling of future assignments.

“I’m constantly having to adjust for one class being ahead and then the next week that class might be behind,” photography teacher and swim coach Chanel Dobrzenski, said.

This is caused by the changing Fridays, meaning that there could be times where A-day classes on Wednesday would go five days without seeing the class again on Monday. Dobrzenski is okay with making these ajustments though.

“I like it better than last year because it’s nice knowing Mondays and Wednesdays are always an A-day and Tuesdays and Thursdays are always a B-day,” Dobrzenski said. “The only thing I’m looking for are Fridays and what that’s going to be.”

Student council has been able to make themselves present in these matters by giving feedback to administrators.

“Dawson and I have attended meetings and met with principals giving them feedback for all the new changes,” senior Co-Student Council President, Evan Samon said.

According to Samon, Leos has been a great leader to start the year and has been dealing with things tremendously.

“Ms. Leos is wonderful and she is doing great things for Bowie,” Warnken said. “She is so engaged with the students and has such a caring heart.”