Harmony School group to host forum, open house

Journalism students at Bloomington’s Harmony School, an alternative school for students of all ages, are seeking to change the way the community sees their school as part of a new program this semester, Press Corps. \nHarmony Press Corps, which consists of seven students and their adviser, Sallyann Murphey, will be hosting a community forum and open house from 6 to 8:30 p.m today at the Elm Heights School building at 909 E. Second St. Students in the Press Corps learn about journalism by working with staff professionals to write stories. \n“If anyone should be in charge of how Harmony is perceived in the community, it should be its students,” said Sarah Kolodziej, a junior and member of the Press Corps. \nThe forum, titled “An Education for Life – Why Harmony Works,” will address questions about school goals and allow guests to meet current students. \n“This event will reintroduce our school to the community to show what we are now,” Kolodziej said. “The work we present will show the community that we are serious students.”\nThe student-run organization at Harmony will begin creating events in order to represent the students in a positive way throughout the years to come.\n“In the past four years the college acceptance rate has been 100 percent; the community should be aware of this,” said Riley Voss, a junior and Press Corps member.\nOne student linked the high acceptance rate to the high-quality support system the school’s faculty offers. The relationship between the teachers and the students extends beyond the normal level of a public school, said Izzy Jarvis, junior and member of Press Corps.\n“We have a voice here and our school is organized with the say of the students, what the hell is better than that?” Voss said.\nThe event will present senior portfolios, an alumni table and a media arts table to show what the students have been working on in their classes. The focus of the event, however, is the open forum, which will allow community members to ask questions about Harmony School. \n“The goal is to clear everything up about Harmony and to get parents involved and get to know us better,” Voss said. “This is a way the community can know exactly what our school is about. You can’t go off of what the public is saying. This forum will be the best way to get answers about Harmony as a school.”\nThe forum will be set up “Oprah” style, Murphey said; aside from the two panelists, the first two rows in the audience will have a microphone.\nPanelists will include Mary Ellen Anderson, director of admissions at IU, and Marsha McCarty, psychologist and member of the Harmony community. Herald Times editor Bob Zaltsberg will moderate the forum. For more information, visit the school Web site at www.harmonyschool.org or call the main office at 334-8349.