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Lee Schools may turn to students for direction
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BONITA SPRINGS — It looks like the Lee County School Board may soon go before its own students.
In a Tuesday afternoon workshop, the School Board discussed improving the advisory boards it’s had for years. The advisory boards are normally made up of concerned citizens, community professionals and district officials, who advise a particular area of concern for the district, like finance or construction.
At the end of the workshop, School Board Chairwoman Jeanne Dozier suggested adding a new advisory group to the board’s list: a student advisory board.
“I’ve got a couple of different plans from a couple of different districts. I think that is one way that we can definitely stay in tune,” Dozier told the other board members. “So that we can have interaction with our students, because that is how we can definitely get some good information.”
When they heard the suggestion, a few students seemed hip to Dozier’s thought process. Most couldn’t think of suggestions they would make off the top of their heads, but welcomed the opportunity to do so.
“I think someone can make a difference,” said Jessica Cooper, 10, who is in the fifth grade at Pinewoods Elementary School in Estero. “But I’ve never really given it that much thought.”
“That would be a great idea,” said Toby Taylor, 14, a freshman at Estero High School. Taylor’s friend, Alex Nova, said he’d like to see improvements in the price of Estero High’s food. “For crappy food,” Nova said, “that’s too expensive.”
Bonita Springs Middle School Principal Ruthie Lohmeyer joked that nearly every student would likely have a concern with food served from Lee County’s largest restaurant chain. Nonetheless, she said, the concept of accepting student input is a good one.
“I absolutely love it. I think you get such a fresh perspective, you get kids who give you honest input. They have no political agendas,” Lohmeyer said. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve been successful here, because I listen to the kids.”
Dozier said the two districts with school boards that she has heard of, Hillsborough County and Volusia County, organize their student boards in different ways. One School Board, she said, divides the students into different groups for elementary, middle and high school grade levels.
“It’s for the purpose of us having a one-on-one interaction with students,” Dozier said.
In Hillsborough County, the board there has principals at each high school select three students interested in the position. Those students then go before the board on a particular day each year for a student forum. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Linda Cobb said students prepare ahead of time and make many useful suggestions.
“They’re not necessarily student government or the best students,” Cobb said. “They ask questions or make statements to the School Board, they give ideas about what they want to change. Some of their suggestions have created changes.”
Cobb said a ban on flip-flops enacted well before the open-toed shoes became a fashion craze, was lifted because of a student suggestion. Elementary students are still banned, Cobb said, because they don’t change for physical education class, which requires shoes with a back on them. Cobb said the students often comment on dress codes and, wouldn’t you know it, cafeteria food.
But Pinewoods Elementary fifth-grader Tanner Sherman, 10, said getting students involved in improving the district has more benefits than just getting a flip-flop ban removed. It may also up some grade point averages.
“It gives an opportunity for students to speak out,” Sherman said. “Because you can really change the school, and maybe it can make learning more fun.”
If the idea gets approval from other board members when it is discussed at a later date, the new student advisory board or forum would become the first of its kind in Southwest Florida. Though the Collier County School District accepts student input in various venues, it does not have a similar board.
Cooper didn’t seem too surprised that her School Board was considering the option.
“Normally kids really don’t make a big difference, Cooper said, “but in this district they do.”
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I suggest the school district setup addresses for stamp-mail and e-mail, to receive written suggestions any time,
and ALL citizens, including students, parents, and employees, be encouraged to participate.
Also all financial records should be online for public review.
#1 Posted by jacktanner on September 28, 2008 at 9:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
All the schools already have administrators and teacher's e-mail addresses so they can be contacted directly by parents.
Most students get their two cents in on a daily basis - trust me (the millenium child has no problem throwing in their two cents). And maybe some principals should be listening and not ignoring their teachers. I'm not saying that children shouldn't be heard, but alot of the times students figure out very quickly if their voices supercede the teachers and that is a disaster. I've been in a school up north that did that and discipline and student behavior was hellish.
I hope this is kept in perspective.
#2 Posted by redcarol57 on September 29, 2008 at 10:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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