After a rise in concerns regarding AI usage, student attendance, timeliness with schoolwork, and the overflowing of assemblies, Poly is introducing a new set of policies this year, aiming to enhance the student experience and environment. 

Prior to this year, featuring guest speakers, student performances, and presentations, assemblies served the purpose of bringing together the Upper School community.. This year, however, assemblies are seeing some new changes due to wishes to provide more free time and space for students. These adjustments were proposed by a Poly faculty committee, formed by the Head of Upper School Sarah Bates, and the deans. Head of Upper School Deans Emily Gardiner was part of this committee, stating that their main goals were to “really try to make it something that the students are looking forward to and really wrapped up in, instead of sort of tolerating.”

 One of the new assembly changes includes the introduction of staggered dean cohort meetings by grade, with the 12th and 10th grade meeting in the first half of the year, and the 11th and 9th graders in the second. Gardiner stated that “We were helping solve the physical crowd, and we need more time with our 10th, 11th and 12th graders that’s actual real time, not shoved into the second half of clubs block.” This devoted time frame for each grade is stated to be catered towards mainly the 11th and 12th graders, giving them well-timed grade specific meetings to discuss college-related matters. 

Late arrivals and assignments have been a key topic throughout the Poly faculty. Starting this year, Poly has instituted a policy that states students can face punishments ranging from after-school study hall all the way to suspension, depending on the severity and consistency of these infractions. Although these late policies appear to be new, they are supposed to act as reaffirmations of long-standing expectations at Poly. During the beginning of the summer, the deans met for their “dean retreat,” which is where they discuss what they believe is and isn’t working for the students. Gardiner states that, “Last year, accountability for attendance, we definitely felt wasn’t working. Because of this, we wanted to make a clear set of expectations and consequences for attendance issues.” The new tardiness policy isn’t necessarily supposed to be an entirely different set of rules, just a more organized one. Interim Head of School John Rankin believes that a better enforcement of these policies will lead to a better school environment. “[The rules] just aren’t being enforced as regularly as people want. People come to me saying, ‘we should have this policy, that policy, and we’ve always had a policy about it, but clearly we’re not enforcing it in the same way.’”  

In addition to being late to class, turning in assignments late was also a desired point of change heading into the school year. Last year, according to The Polygon, “From department to department the [late] policy’s intricacies now shift.” This differs from last to this year, as the entire Upper School follows the same criteria; late work isn’t accepted unless a student communicates with a teacher well in advance. The Polygon also detailed the History department’s policy last year, stating that “Students will receive a one week grace period after a graded summative assignment is due with no repercussions. After the grace period has passed, the student will receive a 1 percent grade penalty on the assessment per calendar day.” The leniency and acceptance of late work is essentially night and day comparing this school year to the prior one, with a much more firm set of rules being put in place. 

With the surge of usage of Artificial Intelligence throughout the world, each department has released their own A.I. Policy on its syllabi, and the administration is working on creating a universal policy. In the years during its rise in popularity, A.I. was initially never to be used and was seen as a direct violation of the Poly Honorable Use Policy. Assistant Head of School, Academics Michal Hershkovitz led the development of the uniform policy.  “We had several professional development sessions, one last year, one this year for faculty who themselves, would like to learn about A.I., how to use it effectively in the classroom, and what to say to students.” Hershkovitz said she aims to empower Poly students to use A.I., not maliciously, but rather as a tool at their disposal. The new policy states that A.I. use is permitted to help, but not do the work for students, allowing teachers to somewhat determine what they consider to be malicious or sneaky intent. A focus group composed of members from Student Government continues to work with Hershkovitz towards this goal, offering a student perspective.