Virtual Town Hall Takeaways: A Conversation with Dr. DiPaula
By Uma Ribeiro
Editor-in-Chief
Image Source: Hammond SGA
The Bear Press sat down with Hammond Principal Dr. John DiPaula through a virtual call to discuss the town hall meetings held for students on Tuesday, December 15, Thursday, December 17, and Friday, December 18 at 10:50 am. A separate town hall was held for seniors and freshmen while a joint one was held for juniors and sophomores in which students were free to ask Dr. DiPaula, administrators, and student leaders questions regarding online learning, mental health, and anything in between. About 30 seniors, 30 juniors and sophomores in total, and 3 freshmen attended the town halls.
Dr. DiPaula explained how the town hall meetings were organized. Hammond Student Government Association (SGA) President Shivani Modi opened up most town hall meetings, with SGA Treasurer Ama Stott opening one of them as well.
“Shivani [and] Ama….spoke about SGA first, and then we had our class presidents speak at each meeting. Then they turned it over to me and I shared a little bit of bullet points like when we’re coming back to school, who is making that decision, what the renovations look like…I told them they could ask me anything and I also mentioned about when athletics were going to start and pushing for other activities to happen. I told them when athletics start, I would like to have some of the other clubs and activities to be able to come together because people want fine arts and music and drama and dance and clubs and activities and robotics and government because not everyone’s an athlete, but that’s what you keep hearing about from the board, and that’s fine, but I told [students] that these are the things that are important to me and I want to make sure that happens for you guys.”
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