A new Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) student advisory group will put student leaders in front of the district’s decision-makers and ensure their voices are heard on things like curriculum, culture and climate, building design, school lunch menus, and more.
JCPS launched its first student advisory group last week, bringing together two representatives from every district high school who will continue to meet monthly throughout the school year.
The advisory group offers a structured, consistent way for students to exercise their voice on district issues that matter to them, said JCPS Chief of Schools Robert Moore.
“I think student voice is the most important voice when it comes to decision-making,” Moore said. “But it’s probably the least heard voice on a consistent basis.”
Advisory group members gathered at the JCPS Center for Professional Learning on Thursday for their inaugural meeting. After a quick get-to-know-you activity, members went straight to work establishing a group name—The Voices of Student Success—along with group norms, governance structure, and vision for the impact they hope to make.
Teachers and administrators don’t always see or understand everything impacting students, said Anthony Pirtle, a freshman at Valley High School.
“We’re here to pinpoint issues within our own schools and county and fix them the best we can from a student perspective,” Pirtle said.
Student advisory members will:
Provide updates on key events and issues at their schools every two weeks
Identify a key challenge they want to help the district address as part of their work
Help JCPS drive improvements related to the district’s Goals and Guardrails
Serve on district committees (e.g., building design, hiring processes, school calendar development, high quality instructional resources, etc.)
Collect qualitative impact data from students to assess how well district initiatives are working
Provide feedback on initiatives at principals’ meetings
Present at Board of Education meetings
Members were nominated by school administrators at each school and range in age from freshman to juniors. After being nominated, students had to apply to join the group and will continue their terms next school year as well.
Jeffersontown High School junior Chanceline Irankunda said she was impressed with how well her peers were already communicating after just a few hours together and excited to help shepherd positive change in JCPS.
In particular, Irankunda said she hopes this group empowers not only its members—but all students—to feel like they have a safe space to share their concerns and ideas.
“I wanted to be a part of this group because I really want to make a change,” Irankunda said. “Student voice is so important because if you’re just speaking to adults, you hear the big ideas. But student voice often highlights the smaller things that adults sometimes overlook.”