Despite being an easy opportunity to get involved with OHS and its policies, Community Council meetings have suffered a decline in attendance since the COVID years. So, Principal Matt Grant and a group of six students planned a BBQ twist for the first meeting of the year on Thursday, September 28.
School-wide flyers and Instagram posts promoted the event, but only 29 people showed up. However, the group had a mix of teachers, students, and parents.
Vindhya Adamala, a student on the OHS Equity Team, explained that she expected over fifty people to show up, but was happy with the turnout. “We definitely would want more students in the future because these kinds of events happen just for the benefit of students, so it’d be really cool to see more students in the future,” Adamala elaborated.
However, Community Council saw some new faces this year. One of them was Latoya Johnson, Running Start ethnic studies teacher and social justice advocate. Johnson attended to discuss “… BIPOC issues, issues with disabilities, issues with marginalized religions, representation of trans and queer kids” and most importantly, the “lack of education that’s still present among the faculty in K-12.”
Specifically, advisors who stereotype in their advising. Johnson shared an example of her son who “as a Black kid, was told he should’ve been playing basketball” by his advisor. Another instance of stereotyping happened when “an Asian female was told she should’ve been doing math, even though she wanted to play soccer.”
Ricky Gant, math teacher at OHS and six-year member of Community Council, shared that he attends meetings “to hear parents’ perspectives and other community members’ perspectives about issues that affect all of us.”
Gant explained that while he represents the perspective of just one teacher, Community Council gives him “an opportunity to connect with students that are not in [his] classes and popular school culture that [he doesn’t] see because [he’s] in [his] classroom during the day.”
Gant believes “Community Council is building leadership” and principal Matt Grant “does a really great job to try to facilitate a discussion where all voices are welcomed and encouraged.”
Conversely, Johnson’s experience with administration hasn’t been so positive. As a parent, she has “spent a lot of time pushing administrators both at the school … and district level to start making some systemic changes.” Johnson continued, “[Administration] becomes effective when parents like me start getting in their faces and don’t give them the choice.”
Later, Johnson commended Gant’s devotion, emphasizing that she “noticed he takes initiative, so [she sees] there are teachers who genuinely want to see systemic change happen.”
Community members like Adamala, Gant, and Johnson work to make OHS a safer, more welcoming environment for students and faculty. They welcome anyone interested to join the next Community Council meeting on October 19, from 6 to 7:30 pm.
Maddy Aroney – Oct 9, 2023 at 2:29 pm
Thank you for your very good reporting. Have you reported on the high school’s survey related to the school climate? I wonder what the school could do to ensure that more students feel engaged and welcomed? Relying on clubs and team sports that are not open to all is probably not adequate.