Starting this fall, ASB president Alan Cai is hosting regular meetings open to students during tutorials in the Student Center to discuss important decisions under the ASB’s jurisdiction. In recent years, ASB meetings have been held only during the 2nd period leadership class, where the entire class comes together to discuss large events throughout the year, such as the Food Truck Festival, but other students haven’t been included.
The first open meeting of the year is scheduled for Sept. 16.
“I think having people come to our ASB meetings and just voice their opinions is the most important part,” Cai said. “It will increase [leadership class] transparency and make people feel like they’re part of the decision making process when it comes to leading the school.”
Cai also emphasized his focus of making sure people are interested in what’s happening in the school community, and feel truly involved in it.
One concern with these plans for public meetings is potentially having a large number of people in one room, leading to rowdy discussions or even unruly arguments.
“We will try our best to keep things in check, whether that be by the leadership students in the meeting or the administrators,” ASB vice president senior Langdon Huynh said. “Everything is still in the early stages and we will adjust our future meetings depending on how the first meeting goes.”
While Cai does have some concerns about maintaining order in the meetings, he thinks that rowdiness itself wouldn’t be a particularly bad thing because it would demonstrate the passion that students have for the decisions that affect them.
Concerns aside, Cai hopes that these open meetings won’t only involve the students, but also hold school leaders — leadership students and administrators — accountable. Cai believes that leadership by ASB is about much more than planning events; it’s about representing the school.
“If we can provide a positive example inside and out of leadership class, I think our school would ultimately be a better place,” Cai said. “What I always think about is, if someone walked into Saratoga High, what would they think?”
