Advocating for the student voice

The Placer Union High School District student board member program provides students with the opportunity to take on a leadership role and represent each school for one academic school year. As student board members, our responsibility is to concentrate on things around our schools that need to change. At the same time, we want to emphasize all the good things and events that are happening too. We feel it is important that student board members have plenty of opportunities to bring about beneficial changes to our campuses, particularly for the student body. It is a way for any and every student to get his or her voice heard by the superintendent and Board of Trustees, and we are very proud to be the ones who can help them do that. The student board member selection process and responsibilities The student board member selection process includes a written application highlighting our involvement with our schools, why we want to serve as a student board member, and what we hope to accomplish during our year. A section of the application also asked us to describe how we would balance our time and school activities with the additional time commitment needed for extra reading, writing and attendance at board meetings. We were also asked to record a short video to introduce ourselves and discuss our perception of the student representative role, as well as to talk about what we hoped to accomplish during our year if we were chosen. We all found the application process thought-provoking. It forced us to evaluate our current time commitments since several of us either participate in a varsity sport or are involved in other leadership activities. The questions in the evaluation made the time requirements clear and emphasized the possible challenges we might face. It also made several of us consider what we would want to do in the position to be an effective representative for our peers. For one of us, outlining the top three goals for the year in the application was an important first step in helping realize the significance of the position.  The roles and responsibilities of the student board position are what enticed several of us to apply. Being in a position to gather information from our peers and be a voice sharing our collective experiences on our campus with the board is important to us. Our responsibilities started with attending board meetings, which required reading the agenda ahead of time and studying issues that would be discussed.  The training process There were four short Canvas training lessons, each containing a short four-question quiz at the end. These lessons were developed by last year’s student board members who knew the expectations inside and out. The lessons were super easy and quick, but also very informative. Some of us completed the training in a couple of days over the summer.  The first lesson was called “Missions, Roles, Responsibilities and Policies,” which went over the foundation of what it means to be a student board member. The second was “Roles and Responsibilities of the Board,” which covered all the laws and bylaws governed by the state of California that the Board has to follow in their protocol. The third module was “Board Bylaws for Student Board Members,” which reviewed the specific rules that exclusively apply to us. These included rules governing eligibility, time in office, initial interviews and characteristics expected of us. The final lesson was about Student Voice meetings, which is a big part of our responsibility. This lesson reviewed the logistics on how to gather diverse student participation, conduct meetings and report back to the Board and our principal.  To help us better understand, we were also given lists of acronyms and their definitions so we would understand what’s being talked about in Board meetings. Overall, we enjoyed this training. It was very informative, and we still have access to it on our phones if we ever have any questions or concerns about anything. However, there is still room for improvement and our end-of-the-year goal is for all of us to make the lessons more interactive, as well as updating information as we see fit. The role of the student board member The primary role of a student board member is to ensure that the student body voice is heard. At our schools, we must keep our eyes and ears alert and be ready to disprove falsehoods or offer encouragement about what the district does for our schools. Not only that, but we look for things that might need improvement while acknowledging the good things that have been accomplished or are in the process of being achieved. When it comes to the Board meetings, we sit alongside the Board Trustees and report out what’s been going on at our schools since the last Board meeting. We also listen to what the public has to say. One of our most important responsibilities is to lead quarterly Student Voice meetings with our district superintendent, Dr. George Sziraki. These meetings, conducted in-person and via Google Hangout between students and leadership, provide a great platform for frank conversations about subjects and concerns that matter to students. We discuss problems and come up with resolutions and “calls to action” that can be implemented across the district. Some of the issues we have discussed this year include safety, academic rigor and relevance, and grading practices. As student board members, it is our responsibility to facilitate discussions and record everything that is being discussed.  The Student Voice council is made up of a diverse group of students that differ in age, gender, and their level of involvement on campus, in order to best represent each school and every possible interest group. Exposure to the ideas and thoughts of students that some of us hadn’t previously encountered changed many of our opinions and enabled us to be more thoughtful and considerate of others, often altering some of the priorities for the changes we wanted to see happen. Not only was the Student Voice council essential to our growth as leaders, it also encouraged us to become more involved on campus and within our communities.