Community High School

A Quorum of Forums

The Town Meeting is dead.  It passed away over the summer, unloved and with little fanfare.  In its last days it had been a shadow of its former self, artificially kept alive with forced attendance and a series of student committees.  Few mourned its passing.  Thus, the 2007-2008 school year at Community High School began with an unfilled gap in place of student government.  Not until nineteen weeks into the first semester did the first organized attempt at creating one surface.

Tentatively called “Forum Council” by the School Improvement Team (SIT), with whom the idea originated, the governing body was to have a completely different structure from the old Town Meeting.  The meeting that the SIT called on January 15th was not created with any intention of discussing school-wide issues from the get-go, but only to establish some rules and procedures for doing so in the future.

No burning issues seemed to be on anyone’s mind anyway, apart from discontent over how the so-called “banner decision” of several weeks past was made.  Many of those in attendance felt a need to be involved in the decision-making process out of a sense of responsibility.  “This is my education, my school,” Martin Stobby said.  Robin Holland did not plan to speak during the meeting.  “If they ask me to, I will,” he said.  He came more to find out about specific issues at Community.

The SIT wrote its Working Draft of Principles for Governance on November 13th and passed out copies to each forum, intending for them to be read aloud and discussed.  In some forums there was a lengthy discussion, while in others, the issue was passed over briefly.  What happened in each room largely depended on whether there was someone who was interested in the principles.  Sarah Olson, for instance, brought up the issue in her forum and was also chosen as the representative to send to the meeting.  Generally, the word got out.

On January 15th the group that was to lay out the foundations for whatever student government would be, met. Not after school like the Town Meetings but during forum itself.  Roughly 42 students, or about two from each forum, showed up over the course of the meeting, with the only staff presence being Marion Evashevski, sitting in the back of the room and typed up the meeting’s minutes.  SIT members sat at the front, and there was a sort of four-point agenda written on the blackboard behind them.

Dylan Cinti of the SIT began with a simple clarification.  “This is a work in progress.  This is not student government,” he said.  It was not yet student government by the time the meeting ended, either, with participants agreeing to meet again later to finish hammering out the basics.

Paul Princen added that the whole reason that the Forum Council was called was “to give the student body a formal voice.” At the beginning, they read over the Principles of Governance draft that had been passed out to everyone upon entering the room.  After they had finished, Lauren Banka was the first one to speak.  The proposals, she said, were “very … not concrete.”

SIT members explained that the principles were only a working draft and were meant to get the discussion going.  As intended, heavy debate ensued, with about three to five students’ hands raised at any given time.  Cinti emphasized that the student government could have real power, a lot of real power, if it were to “go into this with a lot of initiative” while acting within limits.

“It’s not like we’re going to go off and paint the school pink,” Cinti added.

“That would be awesome!” Banka said.

Austin Hughes, an SIT member and a sophomore, began the discussion more formally.  “What do you guys think you want out of this organization?” he asked.

Most of what followed seemed to center around the second principle: “All parties impacted by a decision should have some voice; sometimes that voice is representative.” Whether there should be a small rotating group elected from the student body or a large plenary session attended by delegates chosen by each forum was one of the central questions.

Lilia Epstein-Katz, a senior, suggested that the school should elect a student government consisting of about eight people, as it would be more efficient and responsive.  Students might not have real input if they had to come and make themselves heard over an entire crowd.  “You have more of a voice if you have less people representing you,” Epstein-Katz said.

Noam Samuel, another senior, disagreed.  “I think a small group of people making decisions is kind of against the spirit of Community,” he said.

Others shared a similar sentiment.  “I think having eight people representing a whole school is kind of ridiculous,” David Falkner, a Junior, added.

Some, however, were concerned that having a small, dedicated group would be the only way to keep people from losing interest in the process, as happened with Town Meetings.  “Should we make it required that people participate?” Sevde Felek, a junior, ventured.

“I think all you need is one person from each forum,” Hugh Belden, a junior, said.  Ariel Goldstein, a senior, suggested a bicameral system consisting of one body with forum-based representation and another with grade-based representation, acknowledging his theft from the American legislative process.

Some felt that one of the main problems with Town Meetings was a lack of concrete subject matter.  “We have to know what issues we’re going to be talking about,” Conor Woodcock, a sophomore, said.

After the discussion continued for some time longer, Aidan Brawn, a junior, said: “I feel like we’re stuck too much on what kind of body we’re going to have.  We have to get a certain amount done today.”

The topic changed slightly to the question of whether representation on the student government should be based around the different forums or the different grade levels.

“Forums should be the ones to actually decide things,” Samuel said, describing them as central to Community.

Some pointed to the content of the students present at the meeting, stating that the room was filled mostly with seniors and juniors.  Epstein-Katz felt that freshmen don’t yet care about the affairs of the school, and that a separate representation for their grade would disenfranchise the more interested upperclassmen.

“One of the most important ideas of Community is that it’s not about grade, ever.” Banka said.  “I mean, I wouldn’t want to talk to everyone in my grade.”

After the meeting, though, Hughes observed that active underclassmen might be excluded if representation was based solely around each of the forums.  He was excited that people had such strong opinions, however.  Though somewhat upset that not everyone was always open-minded, Hughes was happy because people wanted to learn what others had to say.

As the time approached 3 o’ clock, usually the latest forums will ever stay, people started to leave one by one.  The group sensed that the discussion was nearing its end and resolved to meet again, for as long as it would take to set up a process for student government.  Jascha Wilcox was the last to speak.  “I haven’t said a thing yet,” he began.  He said that Town Meetings fell apart because there was never any concrete agenda of what issues were going to be discussed.  He hoped that the same would not happen with Forum Council.

Afterwards, Helen DeMarsh, a sophomore, said she thought the meeting was somewhat disorganized because it was the first one.  But she saw the need to have a student government with a definite set of rules to function by, pointing to the banner “fiasco.” “No one had any idea what sort of organization we had until it happened,” DeMarsh said.

The next meeting, on January 31, was smaller, with about 23 people showing up.  The group approved several proposals by majority vote, settling the question of the basis for representation on the council.  Students felt they knew the opinions of people in their forums more than those of the others in their respective grade levels, so a forum-based representation would make more sense.  The group voted that one person, with a one-semester term, should be elected or somehow chosen from each forum.  Worried that freshmen and sophomores would go underrepresented, they also approved a measure allowing for open-mic sessions at the beginning of each meeting, with possible seats allotted to organizations like the BSU or GSA, and anyone allowed to attend as an observer.

“If you came every time, it would be like having a seat on the council,” Mollie Ruth, a junior and SIT member, said.

Sevde Felek, another junior and SIT member, felt that the representative system would be more responsive to the desires of each forum.  “Representatives are simply there to bring what forums think to the meetings,” Felek said.

Ruth said that the structure for the meetings came partly from the way the meetings of the school board itself are set up.  Whether they would have any power was another question.  Ruth suggested that the body could pass non-binding resolutions on decisions that it could not influence, such as proposed budget cuts, and could actually vote on lesser issues, such as another banner decision.

“Forum Council is really more to be there if there’s a problem,” she said.