Student Council brings student fourms to TJ.
by Asia Dorsey
When I say TJ you say Youth Voice! Wait! What? Starting this year Thomas Jefferson Student Council will be transformed into an actual student body council that will play a significant role in the way policies are implemented at Thomas Jefferson. And all TJ students will have a voice.
Why is such student involvement important? Sandra Just, Principal at Thomas Jefferson High Schools says, “The more of a voice the students have in what is going on around them, the more investment they will have. We want to generally support a better school culture.”
The way the process works is actually quite similar to the United States Congress with a few twists. The first one being, student forums will be facilitated and run by Student Council members at the end of every month. The guiding question for all the forums will be, “What would Thomas Jefferson look like if…” The main goal of the forums is to gauge what the students at TJ want or need and for them to make recommendations for change in the school. The forums will be focused around various issues, the first being the school’s physical environment, and the next will focus on race relations. The new school forums are definitely not just for show.
Student Council members take the recommendations gathered, and create a sort of policy request. They present this request to the group of teachers involved in that particular issue. For instance, there will be a group of teachers who have meetings and whose chief concern is attendance. If the policy request was about an attendance issue, they would present the request to that group of teachers, who will review it, make revisions, suggestions and add a little spice of their own to it. The new and improved policy request is then sent back to Student Council. Student Council members, along with the various teachers, present it to the person who has the authority to enact it, and voila! Youth voice in action!
Student Council was traditionally a school decorating and spirit council. They had meetings, planned dances and implemented them; that was their primary function. Along with the dances, Student Council also planned the spirit week before homecoming. That traditional role is about to change dramatically at TJ.
Karina Desroses TJ Senior worked all last year and over the summer, Principal Just, TJ Alum Kelli Trotsky from the DPS Office of Intentional School Culture, Dr. Gayle Hamlett, the schools psychologist and this reporter,
Desroses describes the benefits of have this new process. “I think students at TJ will benefit a lot. It [the forums] will improve the way the students and the staff communicate; it will change the way the students feel about their school, and it will change the way the school is run.”
Some describe it as a revolution in the way a school functions. Others just say it is very, very cool.
