Each year, the School Site Council is tasked with addressing and reviewing data related to the safety, academics and well-being of students. The group also contributes to the review and revision of the school’s safety plan and School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA).

This year, the council consists of principal Greg Louie and certificated staff members Ben Brotzman, Kristen Cunningham, Cheryl Lenz, Kristofer Orre and Emily Wu; classified staff members Richard Racz and Brad Ward; parent representatives Eric Cao, Mu Lin, Rashi Sanghi and Cecilia Xi; and class office vice presidents freshman Jena Lew, sophomore Alan Cai, junior Joshua Ta and senior Nathan Lim. Meeting minutes and agendas can be accessed here.

Currently, the council hosts meetings every other month in the school cafeteria, where students and parents are invited to attend and make comments or suggestions relating to concerns or opinions on the topic of the meeting.

Cai, the sophomore student representative, said he has found that the site council places an emphasis on school infrastructure. During their last meeting, Cai talked about the Green Team’s efforts on improving recycling and introducing composting.

Cai noted that many of the topics the site council hopes to address are related to making the school “greener” as a whole and conserving energy. One such effort was to build solar panels for the school, which has been complicated according to Cai, due to neighbors’ concerns that solar panel awning in the parking lot will affect homes across from the school.

Although Cai said he feels that being a student representative and voicing the students’ concerns is important, he said that student members of the council do not get a vote when deciding matters. The members of the council with vote include staff and parent representatives. However, representation has been less diverse than hoped for as there is a lack of parent representatives.

Another member of the council, college counselor Brad Ward, has found the experience to be rewarding and helpful while adjusting to the school, as Ward only joined the staff recently.

“I know a lot of groups will be represented [at the site council], which is great because this is an open public forum, not like a secret meeting or something,” Ward said. “One of the things that excites me is that [the council does] not just [consist of] administration — it’s parents and students that are on it as well.”

Ward spoke more about the efforts to better recycling on campus to reduce waste and described steps that the council might take to improve the system. She also shared that the solar panel project is seen by the council as a ‘major investment’ that requires a lot of planning.

Although Ward has only attended two meetings so far, she noted that the council has shown a willingness to collaborate with all parts of the community to create a school environment that benefits everyone.

“I’m just excited to work on representing faculty and staff, the adults out of the school, and then have student input, so that you’re not overlooked, and also work with parents, who are physically outside of the campus, but also constituents,” Ward said.