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TRUSTEES UNANIMOUSLY APPROVE STUDENT SENATE

Fri, 8 Apr, 2016

A group of leadership students appeared before Trustees at the April 5, 2016 board meeting to pitch their idea for a youth engagement model that would fairly represent student voice from the District’s 200-plus schools. Trustees unanimously approved the student-designed model that would see the creation of a Student Senate and three student trustees.

In this model, two students from each of the District’s 24 high schools will sit on the Student Senate, which will meet monthly and work with junior high and elementary schools as well. Three student trustees will be elected from this senate to attend a few board meetings each year. At each board meeting they attend, student trustees will present a written report highlighting the issues important to students, a summary of Student Senate activities and student voice on District issues.

“Our students did fantastic work coming up with this model to engage students across our District,” said Board Chair Michael Janz. “This concept will create leaders in the next generation, build generational democracy and instill civic skills and political passion in our students.”

Jacob Dunn, one of the leadership students who made the presentation, said the Board’s approval is an exciting step.

“This is a big leap forward in the evolution of student voice within Edmonton Public Schools, our province and country as a whole. The Board has taken a true leadership role within Alberta in pioneering a new approach to student governance, in not only approving the Student Senate model, but allowing students to design it themselves.”

Pictured above: Leadership students with District staff.

SUMMER PROGRAMMING PILOT

In other Board news, District staff shared information about the Summer Programming Pilot Project for the Greater Lawton Area schools. The goal of the project, which will be run out of Rundle School in July, is to see whether a summer camp can help lessen the impact of ‘the summer learning gap’ for students from socially vulnerable communities. The project will focus on promoting student literacy and include activities such as cooking, art, recreation, music and day trips. Edmonton Public Schools will work with various community partners to offer the programming, such as Frontier College, the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Public Library.