[Music] Ohoy Minnitanka. I'm Jackie Getty, executive director of communications for Minnotonka schools and your host of AOY Minnitankka season 3. As a school district that is student- centered and
focused on supporting student success in academics as well as providing an environment that helps each student feel a sense of well-being and belonging, students are at the heart of everything we do. Elevating student voice has been an important priority for our school board and district leadership. And one
of the most recent ways that we've seen this effort come to life has been with the addition of student representation on the school board. I am joined today by our school board chair, Patrick Leo Howerin, and two of our student representatives to the board, Chip Scott and Zayn Casim. I'd love to hear a
little bit more about you and about your connections to Minnotonka. And Chair Leo Howerin, I want to start with you. Well, great. Thanks, Jackie. Um, yes. Uh I am the current chair of the school board. I've been on the school board for four years. Um and I've been living in
the district since uh 2014 I want to say and uh was an open enrolled family before that. So both of my kids have made their way through the entire system. They were uh Chinese immersion elementary students at Scenic Heights and made their way through uh
MME and then the high school. And so um been a proud member of the community. We used all of the uh advantages of Minnetonka from uh sports to uh arts to
Chinese immersion which I mentioned and the AP and IB programs. So we've uh always been huge fans and glad I've been able to give back for the last four years as a school board member. Well, thank you for your service on the board. Uh, Chip, tell us about yourself. What have you been involved in in your
in your time at Minnetonka schools? Um, so I also was in the Chinese immersion program up until last year, 10th grade. And um, since elementary school, I've also been in the Minnetonka football program and I'm continue to be as the Minnotonka varsity kicker. And
I'm also uh the second seat on the varsity alpine ski team. So we won at state last year, so it's fun to represent the school in that way. And then I'm also in Vantage Global Business this year. So that's been very exciting. Oh, lots of different connections. I continue to hear great things about
Vantage. I can't wait to to dig into that more as well about what you're learning there. Zayn, tell us about yourself. So this is the second year I've been in Tonka and it's been really amazing so far. You know, there's been a lot of opportunities at the school which is really amazing. I'm involved with like Tonka Serves, biology club, student government. It's just been really
amazing overall. So you transferred in in high school? Yeah. Yeah. And so what um have you enjoyed most? Like what is it about this community that you've you've liked? It was just like the atmosphere in general. Like I love how welcoming
everyone is and then I really love how like the school is really nautical themed. That's something that I didn't see in the like the district that I grew up in and it's really unique. Chair Helerin, having student representation on the board is a pilot initiative for the school board this year as named within the action steps of the school board's goals for the
district. Can you talk a little bit about what this pilot entails? Sure. Um, so, uh, the school board has been very interested in expanding opportunities for student voice for many years. Uh, even back when I was first running for the school board, I had
students come and ask me about it uh, at meet and greets uh, saying how can we become more involved? And uh many of us on the school board had that experience of community members saying, you know, why can't we have uh students actually share their voice directly with the board. Um in Minnesota, you can't just
be a voting school board member who's a student. That's just that would that would be contrary to Minnesota law. But um some places do that. Some other uh states around the country have those those opportunities. But anyway, we started looking at okay, what is it? What is it that people do to have
involved student voice on the board and uh how can we how can we look at what's the best practice? So, we started the conversation with ourselves and with our sort of peer school districts to see what they were doing. That's exciting. We will dig more into
that. Zayn and Chip, how did you learn about this opportunity and what made you want to get involved? So, Zay, I'll start with you. I first found out about it from my English teacher recommending me for it and you know first I was like I don't know if I want to do this but I realized that it would be an amazing way for me to sort of facilitate a voice for
my peers and it just seemed like a great opportunity in general. And Chip um for me it was one of my business teachers from one of my electives. I found out that I had been nominated and then uh the voting was coming up and I wanted to continue to serve as I'm also a member on the school board or sorry
not school board uh student government junior representative and I thought this would be another good way to give back to the community and better Minnetonka. So again to the two of you why did you think this was an important role to take on? Like what made you really want to get involved and what were you expecting
out of this? like when you heard about it, what did you think? Okay, yeah, I want to do that because because why? Um, for me it was uh well, we're here every day at school with the student body. And as far as like the decision school board and stuff is making, I think it a lot of it has to do with what
benefits the students and what they want as well. And I think just with us being here every single day, it really helps us connect to that and then share our ideas and what the student body wants as a whole. Insane. Yeah. So, similar to what Chip said, it's nice to be able to have like a place where students can have a say in
the system that imposes the laws for school. And how do you how do you get that consensus of what students are wanting? Is that something you guys are just starting to work on with that whole group of students together that have been selected for this? Have you talked about ideas for how you might gather
that feedback? Um, I think it's still a work in progress, but I think we've definitely had discussions about certain things that we all have heard around the school or people have come up to us asking, you know, like what are we going to do or what are we going to talk about now that we're in this position and able
to bring these different issues and ideas to the school board. So, I think just about like communicating those to everyone. Definitely. I've got like a lot of messages from my friends about what I should say. So, it's nice to just have like the idea that, oh, I can say this if it ever comes up.
Absolutely. And have the ninth graders joined yet, or is that still now they're in the process of being elected and chosen for these roles? Uh, I think that's still a work in progress right now. Yep. Because they're pretty new to the school. Chair, so you talked a little bit about the process for um adding
student representation to the board. Can you talk more about that? I know that you looked at some models even nationwide. Yeah, that's right. um you know the the the board members uh in the past have attended nationwide schoolboard conferences and so we were able to over the course of a couple of those seasons
collect kind of best practices from other places around the country. Uh there's uh some very large counties in very large states where you'd have a school board member who was a student who has so much responsibility as a voting member that they gave them school
credit and they it was a sort of a part of their their workday basically as a student. Um that's sort of one level and then other levels uh certainly work their way down. What we decided to do is take what we found and come back to Minnotonka, talk to each other a little
bit, and then we decide to activate the Vantage public policy strand. you know, we're we're big proponents of our experiential learning in the Vantage program and the public policy strand um was given the assignment by the superintendent and the board to take a
look at the best pract practices uh do some research and come up with their best suggestions for how we would involve student voice on the board. And it was really a fantastic process. They had small groups of I think four or five students each and they presented and uh
a group of us selected the winner of the best uh presentation and that presentation was then given to the board at a public meeting still on YouTube if people want to watch it. Um and uh it was really fantastic. you know they laid out most of the groups came up with a
very similar framework to what we have now and that really became the framework for this pilot which is you know you have a a pool of students that is uh first nominated by teachers and then elected by their peers. We felt like the nomination is important because that
prevents it from just being a pure popularity contest where just the most popular students get this role. It's uh not just popularity, but also sort of the civic-mindedness, if you will, people who want to really engage with their school and uh give back. And so,
uh so far, it seems like we've done a good job of selecting those sorts of students. And uh we've just gotten started with our first meeting and we're just working through what that's going to be like. So, I should mention that Zayn and Chip were our first students to attend as student representatives on the school
board. Uh, and so I I do want to put it to the two of you just to say what were you expecting and then what did you experience? What was it like at that first meeting? It wasn't a really long meeting, but it was probably a good first one to sit in on. Yeah, I mean it was a lot of listening,
which I think I expected at least, but it was really nice at the end to be able to share our opinions on the new um, phone turn-in policy. So, it was nice to be able to talk about how I thought that's been affecting my learning and I mean how I thought it's been going for
my friends around me. So, it was nice to be able to share that. I feel like I sort of expected it was going to go on cuz they really did an amazing job explaining what was going to happen and then um it was just really nice to have a say. You know, I felt like the end segment trip was saying was really nice. You know, I got to talk about the phone
policy, what my peers were saying. So, that was really cool. So, did you have to study a little bit in advance? Did you look at the board packet ahead of time or kind of glance through it and figure, oh, we're going to cover this or? Um, well, Mr. Ericson and Mr. Law met with us the day before and we had a little meeting going over the itinerary.
So, we definitely were prepared going into the meeting. So, it made us a lot more comfortable, I'd say, getting into the chair and being in front of everyone. And so, you'll be attending both schoolboard meetings and study sessions, at least two members of your group for every one of them. Um, and you got to be
at a a more formal, which is the meeting, right? Where they have the gavl and they uh take turns asking questions. It's a little less formal, still u take turns asking questions, but off to a side on a table for the study session. And so, will you come again to a meeting
or how is this working with switching out and having new students come to each of the meetings? Are you signing up in advance or you just kind of going one meeting by meeting and and the group is deciding who to send? Um, well, so far I think Mr. Law has just been contacting us and it's whoever's available on that
day can go, but I know I personally want to go to another one if I have the opportunity to. So, I think it's a good opportunity. Well, we're excited to have you both continue to be engaged in this. Um, let's see. as representatives for the larger student body. Um, and I I pushed
into this a little bit, but I would say um if there are things, and I'm sure the board would agree, that we can do to help you to engage with your fellow students um in gathering input, we'd we'd love to do that. Um and just your thoughts and plans for ensuring that
student voices throughout the school community are heard. Is there a a way that you're doing that as a as a body like that all of you are talking to each other to make sure that everybody's represented when you bring ideas back to the board? Well, our student body is so huge. So, obviously, we can't reach every single
person at the school. So, I feel like it's more so like the people who I do know are able to talk to me, but if there was a way for students to reach out if they had advice, I know that they can send emails, but if there was sort of like an anonymous form, that would be amazing. Great idea. And then two, is your group within your group, are you representing
lots of different student clubs and organizations and academics and experiences? Do you feel like when you're in that room that you have a good representation of the school district? Um, so a lot of us on the school board uh student representation are on the student government and I think that
already gives us a lot of in insight into a lot of what the student body wants because we're already doing a lot of activities and other things that are connecting with us to the students. So, I think that alone is helping us get more ideas and views involved with that, but I think we're still working on
getting to listen to what everyone wants altogether. What do you two personally want to get out of this? Like, what are you hoping that it does for your own growth, your own leadership, your own voice? Honestly, just the idea that I have like the ability to speak up for other
students who don't have the voice. Yeah. and just the ability to, you know, make a difference for the people that obviously didn't get elected on, but we can still help them and give them the ideas and share their ideas to make their school experience better for everyone, I think is very rewarding.
Fantastic. Um, what is the school board hoping for with this pilot? Well, kind of what you just heard. I mean, honestly, you know, we hear from a lot of people. Uh, and it's great to have lots of opportunities for students to be part of that conversation because,
uh, really that's where the rubber hits the road. You're you're the ones who bear the brunt of our curriculum decisions, our policy decisions. And so, uh, we do want to know, you know, that cell phone policy is a great example. We want to know how that's working for you. Um, and so I think what we're doing now
is we're going to be taking this year of the pilot just trying to figure out, okay, what's what's working, what's not working, how can we best support our student representatives, uh, so that we can get, uh, the best out of that conversation that we can, and then when it comes to the end of the year, we'll
we'll have to sort of pile up all that information and try and evaluate it and decide uh how we move forward or if we move forward. And so measuring success, that'll be all part of that. and then hearing too from the students. Yeah. And measuring success will be, you know, it's a there's no formula for
this. Um, and so we can't just say, it's not like you can look at a score and say, well, they they all got 78, so they're going to pass. You know, it's we're just going to try and do our best to see what we're hearing from them, what we're hearing from their peers, and what uh we're hearing from the community about it. Fantastic. Um, I do want to ask each one
of you, is there anything else that you want to share with the community about this, about this role, about what you hope for it, um, that we haven't covered? I mean, I just think this is an incredible opportunity. So, I just hope we continue to do this for years to come. I say
definitely, it's it's a great opportunity. Well, thank you to each of you for being here. We really appreciate the time. We really appreciate that the school board is doing this and that we can hear more about it throughout the the year and excited to have you back and to see your peers who are going to be attending
meetings and study sessions. And thank you both for doing it. Yeah, of course. Thank you for having us and thank you all for joining us. Please send us your questions, your suggestions, and your ideas for podcast episodes. You can send those to communications at minitaschools.org.
We'll see you again soon. [Music]