Advisory board brings students to the table

Student Advisory Board is a diverse group of students from all over the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District who represent their schools while having an effect on issues within the district and the student body.

SAB is an excellent opportunity for students to get involved and voice their opinion on various matters throughout the school district.

Student Advisory Board meets once a month from 9 a.m. to noon one Tuesday each month. Meetings are held at a variety of locations, alternating between middle and high schools. This gives SAB members the ability to show off their schools and the activities going on within them.

“SAB provides an opportunity for students to become leaders and to make improvements to their education,” Student Advisory Board president Ariel Hasse said.

SAB is also open to new ideas. Last year SAB had their very first joint meeting with Anchorage, which was extremely beneficial. They discussed various topics about the curriculum such as half days and having seven periods in a day versus six periods.

One of the ways SAB benefits the community and the Mat-Su Borough School District is through various community service projects. The Community Service Committee has worked on projects including canned food drives, cards for the special needs teachers and gift cards for the MYHouse organization.

A previous community service project SAB has done was when they visited the Pioneer home with Anchorage’s SAB. During the visit, all of the SAB members spent time with the residents and some were recruited as future volunteers. SAB also works very closely with MYHouse, which is an organization that provides a safe and welcoming place for mostly homeless children and teenagers.

SAB has numerous committees besides the Community Service Committee. Another is the Special Meetings Committee, which thinks of ways and opportunities for SAB members to get more involved and known throughout the community and district. They also have extra meetings that would be beneficial to the group.

The Board also has a Resolutions Committee. If there are any changes the members would like to see within the student body or the individual schools represented, they write what is called a resolution. From there it is presented to SAB, and if it gets passed, they present it to either the school board or the Alaska Association of Student Governments.

Some of the resolutions SAB has passed are putting ATMs in school, revising the health curriculum, and allowing graduation cap decorations.

Last year, schools began to add ATMs to their campuses. At the same time, it also was realized that the district’s health policy needed to be updated, so SAB composed a resolution and presented it to the Matanuska-Susitna Curriculum Council. After that, the resolution was brought forward to the spring AASG conference, and it passed unanimously. Next, the plan is to bring it to the School Board.

The resolution to allow graduation cap decoration was proposed by Palmer High School. The resolution references the Mat-Su Borough School District’s policy, which states graduating seniors are not allowed to decorate their graduation caps with the consequence of not being able to walk with their class.

Some schools enforce the policy more than others, but the members would like to change the policy to allow cap decoration. Therefore, Palmer High School composed a resolution and presented it to Student Advisory Board. The resolution has been approved, but it was changed to be effective for the entire district. This resolution will be presented to the School Board in the near future.

Student Advisory Board is an excellent experience for students and a great way to get involved within their school and student governments. It also allows students to get a glimpse at a professional setting and become familiar with the rudiments of governmental procedure.

Members of SAB have a meaningful time making changes that matter and meeting many new people that have similar interests.

“In MSBSD, unlike many other districts in Alaska, students have a voice in their education through SAB,” Hasse said.

Students considering becoming involved in this opportunity should talk to their student government or student council adviser.

Amelia Butler and Amy McDougall are Student Advisory Board members.