Despite SGA and the Restorative Justice Committee being venues for students to engage in the school community, new and recurring issues seem to arise each school year. Students may wonder why nothing changes. Two students aimed to change that.
After attending the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association (MCRSGA) general meeting in 2022, current seniors Aneela Shemsu and Emily Liu were inspired to improve student involvement here. “We found that a lot of student bodies were disconnected from administration, and at Wootton, it was the same thing, which is why we started the Principal Advisory Council,” Liu said.
Shemsu and Liu proposed the idea to Principal Douglas Nelson and began creating the Principal Advisory Council (PAC), revolving around the connection between students and the principal. “Students don’t really get to talk to Mr. Nelson in the way that we do at PAC meetings, and I gave a lot of knowledge about decisions that are happening with the administration that they might not be as transparent about,” Liu said.
PACS’s main goal is to advocate for those underrepresented in the student body, so picking members was crucial. “The student members were chosen in a very meticulous process because when we established the Principal Advisory Council, we had a meeting before officially establishing membership to ensure there were no issues or perspectives dominating the conversations to ensure everybody’s represented,” Liu said.
They held interest meetings to get student members at the start of the school year. “We wanted to make sure we had student input in PAC, so we had a couple of interest meetings with students from Wootton,” Liu said. “There were about 20 students at every meeting.”
What makes PAC different from other clubs is Nelson’s significant role in it. Nelson attends every meeting as a facilitator, overseeing discussions and gathering information from student members. “Often, we’ll have group discussions and a Q&A session, and it’s really his chance to provide answers to students but also answer his frequently asked questions,” Shemsu said.
At the PAC meetings this year, the student members decided on the structure of the committees and the issues they wanted to fix. “The names of the committees are diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental, mental health and school and student safety,” Liu said. “Something that has come up in PAC meetings is the hate going around our school. That’s something that’s a really big issue as well.”
PAC also plans to work with other clubs on issues in the school. “For example, our members brought up working with different environmental groups in and even out of the school to be able to push climate initiatives,” Shemsu said.
Shemsu and Liu plan to strengthen the school community and solve the issues at school. “I think that once we move towards committees and start doing work, we’re going to be able to make changes that benefit the Wootton community,” Liu said.
Students can contact PAC by emailing the leaders, Shemsu and Liu, or email Nelson regarding any issues or concerns.
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