The semester-long assignment is a district-wide project for all American Studies classes.

It’s the chance for students to rethink everything when it comes to education.

“The saving the system project is a district-wide American studies project where the students are creating a school from the ground up,” American Studies teacher Emily Griffin said. “So they have to assess their experience in public school and think about what improvements they would want to make, what their big core values are, and develop a school based around those.”

It’s all part of saving the system project and is compared to the process of creating a government in U.S. History.

“On one end when we look at the American government or any government, it’s a process that takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of deliberation from the beginning of sort of figuring out all the ideals you have and boiling it down to something that’ll work,” American Studies teacher Swapna Gardener said. “And then from there creating new things that still are true to your ideals that you set in stone in some way so they can sort of see that process and sort of understand how it works in the US government.”

Junior Alexandra Vasilkovsky says she is glad they’re doing the project since it allows students to explore new ideas. 

“I’m really happy that I have the opportunity to design a new school because it’s really making me reflect on my own values, not just for education, but generally what I value as a person and I think it’s really interesting,” Vasilkovsky said. “And it’s been a little bit difficult, the collaboration aspect, but I think it’s important practice.”