- The new student board advisory council was recently approved by the FUHSD Board of Trustees to support the sole student board representative with additional input.
- The goal of the advisory council is to improve representation of students across all five campuses.
- The council will consist of a student representative from each FUHSD school; more students may be added later.
With the support of the FUHSD Board of Trustees, the FUHSD Student Board Member Advisory Council has recently launched to bolster student representation, diversify input and better support the student board representative. Senior and student board representative Amy Tang spearheaded the initiative after the community requested more student input during district board meetings.
The new council, led by the student board representative, will consist of members from each of the five FUHSD schools. It also aims to include students from De Anza Middle College.
“We have noticed that over the past couple of years, in particular, the candidates that have been put forth by their schools to be considered for student board rep are very strong,” Assistant Superintendent Paula Robinson said. “One idea some students and Intra-District Council representatives suggested is that the people who have been selected or elected by their schools to be interviewed for the student board rep position could be selected for the council.”
Currently, only one student from the entire district serves as a student board representative for the Board of Trustees. A new student is selected for the role every year after being nominated by their school and passing an interview with district staff. As the student board representative, Tang is responsible for keeping in touch with all campuses to represent them during district board meetings. She does this by receiving reports from each school’s IDC.
“Because IDC also plans events and other things on campus with their ASB teams, they don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to put as much time into the student board report,” Tang said. “It is just really hard for me, personally, to speak upon all five school sites with not as much support, so I decided that the council would be a good idea.”
Concerns from the Board of Trustees regarding limited representation with only one student representative have also contributed to the creation of the advisory council. The new council will provide the student board representative with reports focused on student input, while also continuing to receive reports from IDC to help inform board meetings and decisions. Additionally, the new council aims to recruit students from underrepresented groups.
“We’re really trying to reach out to students who might not typically be serving in leadership positions,” Tang said. “In ASB, it’s often the same students getting leadership positions or the same students who have their voices heard for a lot of ongoing decisions. That’s not necessarily the point of the council. It’s really just to understand different student perspectives and hear from those who are not typically represented.”
Tang first discussed her ideas with district staff, including Robinson and Superintendent Graham Clark. Though they initially considered simply increasing the number of student board representatives, the idea was turned down as it would have required a board policy change — a more intensive, rigorous process.
The district is still discussing the specifics surrounding the operations of the council, such as the number of members, the roles of each member and plans for student outreach.
“We have over 9,000 students in the district,” Clark said. “The council will be a way for the student board member to get input from a greater variety of students.”
