Council gives Searsport students a policy voice

Editor’s Note: Student Union is written by students at Brewer High School, Hermon High School, John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Searsport District High School and Stearns High School in Millinocket. The weekly column is a joint effort among the schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by a Searsport District High School student. Her adviser is Kathleen Jenkins.

At Searsport District High School, students’ voices are starting to be heard.

The installation of the student-, community-, administration-driven decision-making council titled “Governance” has made students feel equal to administrators, teachers and community members.

The council, which consists of 12 students and 12 adults, breaks down into three students from each grade level, four faculty members, a support staff member, a school board member, two parents, two community business owners, an alumnus and one administrator.

The group will work together to decide, through consensus, which submitted proposals to approve.

Proposals are sort of like laws, bills or amendments that involve school policy or procedure. The proposals are submitted by anyone in the community. Proposals can be submitted by picking up a proposal cover sheet from the front office, guidance office or school library and returning it to the “filter group” mailbox, located in the front office, by 3 p.m. any Monday.

All proposals first must pass through the filter group before being decided upon by the council. The filter group’s main responsibility is to make sure proposals submitted to the council are not related to anything on the off-bounds list.

Those submitting the proposal then are asked to come to a council meeting and make a presentation to the council. The council will ask questions and discuss the proposal after the presentation. Those who submitted the proposal then will be dismissed from the meeting, and the council will discuss and vote on the issue.

The community council uses the lens of “Promising Futures,” our Searsport District High School mission statement, and New England Association of Schools and Colleges documents to make their decisions. The council then decides which and how many “lily pads” to send the proposal to.

Lily pads are the individual groups that make up the council. The council receives feedback from the lily pads and votes again on the issue. The council can also decide to pass or reject the proposal or hold an all-school forum, which consists of a presentation of the proposal by its proponents and by the council, followed by questions taken at a schoolwide assembly.

It is forwarded by small groups of the council to student advisories, where the issue is discussed more deeply. Finally, the students vote ballot-style on the issue, and the proposal is adopted if it receives the support of three-quarters of those voting.

Searsport is genuinely excited about the new structure.

“I think the program will really work,” said Amber Ward, a sophomore.

Freshman Lisa Hudson added, “I love the idea; it actually gives students a voice.”

The next meeting of the community council is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18. The agenda includes a specific look at the guiding documents. Student-submitted proposals to be considered are withdrawal of the no-hat policy, additional Advanced Placement courses and off-campus lunches.