Jamie Kim co-editor-in-chief
ASB held student forums on Friday, Jan. 26, at the Jon Cherney Lecture Hall from 1:10 to 3 p.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m to educate students about reconfiguration, gauge student opinions and answer questions that students may have.
The ASB reconfiguration committee, consisting of Student Board Member Jonathan Artal, teacher/student commissioner Kiana Sedighpour, junior class president Wesley Wu and public relations commissioner Sarabeth Tansey, opened the forums with a presentation about the background and context of the district’s reconfiguration, the issues with the current 4 K-8 models and the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed plans.
Wu hopes that the forum was able to make students more informed about the changes happening in the district.
“The goal was to share information about the possible reconfiguration options as well as the reasons why the board is thinking about reconfiguration. It’s also to hear feedback and questions from the students themselves that Artal can present to the board next Tuesday,” Wu said.
Junior Jiho Park, who attended the forum, believes that the presentation gave her the facts to form her own opinion about this issue.
“I thought it was interesting how ASB decided to hold this forum to receive the opinions of all students, which I think is something that doesn’t happen too often anymore,” Park said.
After the presentation, there was time for questions, and the forum concluded with a quick five-question survey (results below). *Not everyone voted for each question.
| Is some kind of change necessary in the district? | Do you think that reconfiguration would lead to academic improvement? | Do you think that reconfiguration would lead to improvement in extracurricular programs? | Do you think that reconfiguration would lead to social improvement? | Which option do you prefer? |
| Yes: 26 No: 2 |
Yes: 23 No: 6 |
Yes: 28 No: 2 |
Yes: 16 No: 10 |
3 K-5, 1 6-8: 15 4 K-8: 3 2 K-5, 1 6-8: 4 3 K-8: 6 |
With the information gathered from this meeting, Artal will share the students’ thoughts at the Board of Education meeting this Tuesday, Jan. 30.
“I wanted to provide students with some background on where we are as a district, how we got here, and how we can move forward to enhance our educations,” Artal said. “Ultimately, students are the most important stakeholders in this district, and I think we should consider their thoughts and input before making any decision.”
