Whenever change comes to Piedmont, students look to administration for avenues towards agency. Last year, when the Board of Education moved to cut crucial programs from the district in response to the teachers’ union’s pay raise demands, dozens of students appeared or spoke at a Board meeting. The school Board listened, and the next proposal for district cuts displayed an effort to maintain crucial classes and teachers. In that instance, where the community raised its voice collectively to effect change on policy, PUSD lived out a democratic ideal–the people spoke, and their government listened.
Recognizing that students want involvement in the decision-making process, Superintendent Jennifer Hawn and the Board of Education have made some attempt to keep that ethos visible in their actions. Notably, as the Board pushes for a phone ban at the high school level, Hawn has advocated for student representation by sending out surveys to the student body to gauge general opinion. However, the in-person, active push by the community seen last year in response to Special Education and arts cuts has been muted or absent.
In this issue, we report on 21 cameras placed around campus, including six new indoors ones, with more on the way.. Despite some student concern, administrators provided no outlet to ask questions of decision makers. The choice was made behind closed doors, and it violated students’ trust in their administrators.
The problem here lies with the incongruity between the Board and administrators’ professed democratic values and the fact that important decisions are being made bureaucratically. During an evening Zoom meeting regarding the phone ban one Board member remarked on how telling it was that no students attended the meeting, considering their negative reaction to the phone ban proposal. If the Board of Education wishes to include student voice, it needs to go further than honorary student representatives–it needs a mainline to a revived student senate.
Civic engagement by the student body in directing the future of the district has to come from both sides. Through ASB and daily interactions, students have a voice with administrators who work closely with the Board of Education. The solution is a student senate. A reactivated student senate, which until recently served as a substantial governing body consisting of a representative from every English class, would create an official pathway for communication between the Board and the student body. By assigning a Board member as a liaison to the senate with periodic meetings, the Board and body might begin to operate collaboratively, instead of antagonistically. The already established student representatives on the board could act as an advocate for student voice from the senate, and the murky guesswork about students’ needs and desires could be replaced by clear delineation.
With the phone ban moving in the works, this relationship is more essential than ever–one can easily imagine the sudden enforcement of an unpopular policy and the subsequent outcry. Relationships are built on trust and communication, two things in need at PUSD, and the two things that a student senate would provide. Let’s make it happen.
