90th Triple I conference logo. Photo courtesy of Illinois Association of School Boards.
On Nov. 17-19, the Illinois Associations of School Boards, Administrators, and Business Officials held their 90th annual Triple I conference, welcoming students’ voices for the first time.
Every year the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), and the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) holds a joint conference to discuss issues related to education and local governance.
As part of that, School District 308 was invited to present on their journey with student voice. As of 3 years ago, SD308 was among the first in the state to implement a student board member program giving students a seat at the table with the elected leaders of the school district.
Since then, the district has expanded the student voice program to include a Superintendent Student Advisory Council allowing students to provide input on issues important to them directly to administration and board members. This group has tackled issues such as mental health and sexual harassment in an effort to improve the overall school climate.
The SD308 Student Coalition works to elevate the voices of students from historically marginalized and underrepresented identities. These programs became topics of discussion as 308 students, board members, and administrators interacted with school officials from around the state.
Chicago Board of Education Deputy Chief of Staff, Vincentia Egonmwan, has been working on expanding student voice in the largest school system in the state.
“I would like to get more students involved in our decision-making process,” Egonmwan said. “Right now we only have one student board member but I would like to add at least one more and build out more ways for students to be heard and involved.”
This matched the general theme with many wanting to implement student voice programs but not necessarily knowing how it would work based on their size or community.
Alison Louis, the Principal of North Boone Middle School, spoke about some of the challenges they are facing.
“We have been trying to incorporate students in our building leadership team discussions and recently just reestablished a student council. But, they are mainly focusing on spirit weeks and dances the ‘fun stuff’ so we need to work up to those higher level conversations,” Louis said.
Following the panel student board members had the opportunity to talk about issues facing their schools and how different student voices look across the state. But, what stood out is that no matter the variation SD308 had already implemented something like it.
Overall, the conference gave School District 308 recognition for the success of our student voice programs and a platform to help other districts elevate student voices.
Tyler Boecker is a staff writer for Oswego East’s online news magazine The Howl