New Westminster students will play a role in decision making at the school board level, with delegations in the board’s education committee.
The education committee recently heard from students involved in the district’s student voice forums, who spoke on how to get students more engaged with what’s happening in the district and on school board.
“We’re just suggesting that some students be sitting with the board at these meetings every month starting next year, with about six students – one from each middle school … and then some senior students from the high school and some younger-grade students as well,” said Rebecca Ballard, a Grade 11 student from New Westminster Secondary School, at a recent education committee meeting.
“We wanted to be on the board – because everyone’s hear for us – to be consulted for decisions that directly affect us and for things. If the board needs … consultation from the students, opinions from students on things that you might want to pass that would affect us, and just kind of a go-between, between what you guys do and the students learning.”
Ballard was joined at the committee meeting by five other students, who said students can help fine-tune issues going through the school board to ensure it would work well at the school level.
At the following regular public school board meeting, the board voted on a report put forward by trustee Gurveen Dhaliwal, which proposed a “student voice district team,” which would include three students from NWSS and one from each middle school.
That group of students would participate in all education policy and planning committee meetings, “with the option to attend other meetings and re-evaluate participation as necessary,” according to Dhaliwal’s recommendations to the board.
District staff will work together with the student voice district team to develop guiding policies with respect to the expectations of the student voice team, including language around inclusivity and diversity of voices, including black, Indigenous and people of colour and LGBTQ2S+ communities.
The matter began with a November 2017 motion that recommended the school board appoint student trustees, and the superintendent presented the school board with staff recommendations on student involvement the following spring.
Teacher Stacy Brine worked with students to kickstart the NWSS Student Voice Club, which began in October 2018 and includes 15 to 20 students who meet once a month to look at student concerns within the school.
From there, the club held a question-and-answer session with then-principal John Tyler and on Feb. 7 this year held the district’s first “student symposium,” which involved NWSS, Power Alternate Secondary School, the Royal City Alternate Program and all three middle schools.
At the symposium, students spoke on budget and student learning priorities, and later that month students participated in engagement sessions on the budget development.
The students' involvement in the committee will begin in October this year.
