Site Council paves the way for change in monthly meetings that discuss academic and social objectives of the school for each new year.

“We talk about a lot of different subjects,” council member senior Amanda Champion said. “We discuss changes around the school due to Common Core. We talk about keeping up to date on technology at school, and how we can relieve student stress around campus.”

Members of site council include students, teachers, parents, the principal and some non-academic staff. The ratio of members is based on an equilibrium of students plus parents to school staff.

“I joined Site Council because I believe student input is essential to the decisions the group makes,” junior Chris Machle said.

Site Council is in charge of recommending the Single Plan for Student Achievement, a list of core goals for the year presented to the school board, which makes the final decisions.

“Site Council gives an opportunity to talk about what’s happening at the school,” Principal Brent Daniels said. “An example is last year we examined our school structure to see if we could address student stress. Under that we discussed the bell schedule.”

Every school in California has a site council and it is important because it decides what the school’s priorities will be. Although the school board must approve them, the ideas stem from Site Council.

Site Council looks at data and recommendations from a variety of resources, such as student performance data, student surveys, WASC reports and the opinions from the various representatives in the room, Daniels said.

“While a lot of the discussion thus far has been on WASC goals which I don’t know much about, I hope to discuss issues in which I could provide helpful input, like ways to reduce student stress,” Machle said. Site Council provides an opportunity for anyone to present an idea to a space for discussion.

“Mr. Hartford wanted to know if there was a student who had time and was interested,” Champion said. “It sounded cool. I’m interested in helping out the school climate. And it’s nice to be heard in a place that really values student voice.”

On certain dates set forth by Daniels, Site Council is open to all students, parents, and members of the community for participation. Non-members cannot vote but are still encouraged to attend meetings and discuss ideas in a collaborative environment.