Hey, everybody. I'm Doug and that's Connor and
this. Is the Bethel School District presents podcast.
1 way student voice. It's coming to the
forefront
in
Jiffy
but... Oh, sorry. Was I doing that out
loud?
Connor, I cannot concentrate with. It's you're singing
a little hack brother. Sorry. I I apologize.
I have had that song
Bop
stuck in my head. For, I know how
long it's it's a curse. Have you ever
had a song stuck your head? I know
what to do to get rid of it.
It's a curse, but the blessing is the
Jiffy pop
I think that's the somebody get weird out
on the phone right now because he's missed
an opportunity. I have... Actually, I'd say the
last song that was stuck in my... It's
still pops up from now and then it's
uptown fun by Bruno Mars. It's for some
reason. Uptown Folk gonna give to you. I
suppose it does sometimes. Yes. So that would
be the last 1 stuck. Is it about
for you.
And is is there a way can you,
like, hold your breath? Can I? What can
I do to get rid of this? How
can I shake this curse
I actually saw a documentary on this very
thing? It's sponge bob, episode. I forget the
episode number we got looked it up called
ear worm, and he goes through all the
different ways you can get rid of near.
Okay. I'm gonna have to check that 1
out. Definitely do as with all sponge bob
documentaries, it's definitely worth your time.
Today, we have some special guests joining us
in the studio and I think you should
take this question to, Connor. This is a
good 1. Absolutely. And we do. We have
some students in the studio today, and 1
way student voices coming to the forefront in
our district is with the superintendent student leadership
council. The group's made up of student representatives
from all of our high schools, Bethel high,
challenger, Gram Palace, Span way lake and even
Bethel Virtual Academy. Students have the opportunity to
provide firsthand perspectives, experiences,
feedback, ideas, and thoughts about their educational experience.
And district leaders are gonna use their input
to help influence district and school culture, engagement,
policies, procedures and practices. So we are super
excited this week to welcome members of the
super superintendent student leadership counsel to the show.
So to get us started, why don't we
go around the horn? Introduce yourselves, tell us
what school you go to
And more importantly, what's the last song you've
had stuck in your head. My name is
Caitlyn, and I go to Span away Lake
and the last that's been stuck in my
head is been like this by Doj cat?
My name is Jay Grant. I go to
Bethel Academy me and the last 1 that
was stuck in my head was I can
do with the broken heart by Taylor Swift.
I'm Jamal.
I go to Grand,
and the last song that was stuck in
my head is breed by Nirvana. I've heard
1 of those songs. But I know they're
all very popular. So the superintendent student leadership
council is a super big deal. It's the
first time this district has brought together a
group of students in this way. In fact,
you all have photos hanging on the walls
over in the Es right next to the
school board members. So kinda big time in
it.
Let's cut right to the Chase how important
is hearing the voices and experiences of students
when it comes to drafting new policy and
changes in the district at our school start
with you, Marco. It is extremely important,
drafting new policies and including students has gotta
be the most fundamental thing and in making
a policy. You can't have a policy without
thinking about the students or, considering how it
would affect the students.
A lot of policies that are created. I
feel sometimes they aren't even thought about fully
through it shows it looks good on a
piece of paper, and doesn't perform well actually.
So I feel like it's detrimental. Yeah. Absolutely.
And it's supremely important that we include students
in all of these processes is because these
are students that are facing the decisions that
these board members are making Caitlyn, what about
you, how important is this process in making
decisions for the rest of our school district?
It's really important. A lot of the adults
in the school district wouldn't be here without
kids.
Their whole job is supposed to be supporting
a students. So I think
without
taking them into consideration, it could greatly affect
the students in their their time with the
school district. Absolutely. Jay, what about you? I
think it's very important, especially because us students
we're the ones in the school we're the...
We're doing this stuff every day.
Some of us talk to the teachers. Some
of us don't because we don't feel comfortable
with those teachers. But once we all come
together as a group and the students, we're
so much more comfortable, we're so much more
vocal. They give us our own time, We
write down our thoughts. We talk to them.
It's very important. Now we know you're working
diligently on your upcoming presentation to the school
board. We don't want you to tip your
hand, but give us maybe some bigger broader
topics and themes that you'll be discussing.
The 1 I will be discussing mainly is
mental health, connecting towards more suicide depression. It
very close to my heart with some people
I know. And I feel like in the
past decade from stories I've heard, it's not
talked about and it needs to be changed
now. Yeah. And Marco, what about you order
some of the things that you wanna talk
the board about. Before I get started, I
wanna touch on that because it's very important.
I mean, you see this on the daily
situations where people who don't even, face their
emotions for 20 to 30 years. So I
think that's good that we're discuss mental health
with the school board and just get that
squared away on top because if you're not
get mentally, you're not gonna do anything.
But for me, I feel like the most
important thing to touch upon with them is,
like,
bathrooms right now. It it might seem very
minuscule and the broad topic of school, but
it's the process to raise your hand and
ask for the bathroom, not knowing what the
answer is going to be.
A lot of times maybe that you might
even be single out for using the bathroom
of but, you know, you never know what
someone's going through or what they have physically
limiting their,
body ranges. So... I am really glad that
you both mentioned mental health. And it's 1
of the things that I really love about
your generation is you're so much more open
to the idea. Of speaking about your own
mental health. The older generations, my generation, that
was kinda Taboo and I just love guys
are able to talk about that and not
have any stigma around it? Caitlin, what about
you? What do you wanna talk the board
about? Student teacher relationships, the teachers are the
adults that students see every single day. They
don't see board members. They don't see all
the senior staff in the school district. They
see teachers. So if their relationship with teachers
is not positive, it can really be detrimental
to how they do in school. Yeah. Absolutely.
Such a huge component of schools of teachers.
And and we are talking a lot about
areas where we can find improvement in the
district because that's a lot of what you're
trying to do is over come areas that
need to be helped. But there are some
places where we are succeeding. Can you all
talk a little bit about places where you
think we're doing a good job whether in
your building or strict wide, Mark will start
you. I think the good thing that we're
doing is inclusive in this right now. We
have a lot of,
celebrations, meetups ups, assembly
Yeah. Definitely. That sounds cool. What about you,
Jill? And and you, I should say, for
those who forgot Jl is going to Bethel
Virtual Academy. So you have a different perspective
on this, you are not in a building,
but what are you seeing in your kinda
daily class schedule that you like
I can always say that I cannot speak
for any other student.
I can only speak for myself. But when
they have calling is that teacher support,
in the offers they have gave me. I've
been able to front of the school board.
I've spoken at national conference with them. They're
really nice. They help me a lot with
all the issues I've had this year. And
all the ups and downs. But if like
communication with me and, like, making sure I'm
good and my family's is good and all
that. So that's 1 thing I'm really grateful
for the teacher's type Bb. Nice. And Caitlin,
what about you?
Well, I do running start. So I'm only
at the school for 1 period, but based
on we did a survey. So based on
the survey that we got back about student
teach relationships. It came back that a lot
of students are really,
happy with their relationships with their teachers. And
so they made me
really happy that
at least my school is doing a good
job at
making those connections with students and fostering a
environment where they feel welcome. Yeah. And it
is amazingly important to have good teachers that
can kinda make or break someone's anyone's educational
experience. Marco, you already have school board experience.
Your voice was heard at a recent school
board meeting and there, you shouted out superintendent
Tom Siegel for the work he's done in
our district over the past 2 decades.
Tell us about that moment. Kinda isolated moment
for me to even do that, reach out
and say, thank you to someone I've never
met before. But,
Todd heard about Tom Siegel because he made
Pierce County skill center, and that's where I
tend. But, 1 thing that was more important
to me to actually shout him out for
was fact that he created that, or he
went against the odds to create another kinda
institute that you still have to go to
school for. Like, the whole idea. I've never
heard of it before. You go for 2
classes and then you go somewhere else for
the rest of your day. Yeah. Shout out.
Skill center, what an amazing place to to
kind of
prep students for life after graduation... I've heard
stories about Boeing or Tory showing up and
offering students jobs before they've even graduated
and my these are not minimum wage jobs.
These are, like, almost 6 figure jobs for
someone who just graduated. So it's amazing that
we can have out opportunities like that. And
it's awesome that you're able to kind of
experience that and see if that's something you
wanna do.
Speaking of graduating, we do have 1 upcoming
graduate here, Caitlyn, you're gonna be graduating in
June,
So congratulations on that. What are your plans
for after school you do right to college?
You're gonna join the workforce? What are gonna
do? Yeah. So I'm graduating with my Aa
also, so I'm gonna be transferring to P
you, and I'm gonna be studying political science
and hopefully, music as well. That's cool. And
and what kind of music you into? So
I play the Clear net. So it's a
lot of classical music, what I'm gonna try
to get back into jazz.
Nice. And so we have 2 musicians here.
Marco, you're also a musician. You're not a
senior, so you're not gonna be graduating this
year.
First,
I'm sure you've thought a little bit about
what you wanna do after you graduate? We
talked a little bit about that. What are
you thinking? And what are some options? And
then what kind of music you Well, options
outside of high school is just going into
the workforce. Like I said, I wanna work
for a union specifically.
So Boeing or Tory or Dan court. Any
of those aerospace machining shops, I'd be more
than happy to go to. I, like, working
with my hands and everything I'm wearing right
here, and Pierce kinda skill center, it's just
setting me so I can go there.
For the music that I'm into, it's very
obscure. I mean, it ranges from, like, the
slow type of black metal to anything to
R and b if I'm feeling it.
I just... I play all over the place.
And so is that... That... That's what you're
interested in playing listening both? What where where
you taking your inspiration from? I played country,
rock,
punk rock,
metal.
I play drums sometimes, so you can whatever
tempo drums can fit in that play drums.
Nice. And how long have you been playing
music? Been playing hard for about a year
and
drums like 2 months. So, Jl, you're also
not a senior, but what are you thinking
about in terms of,
after you graduate? What do you wanna pursue?
I'm hoping to go for my business and
marketing degree. I'll way to a bachelor's,
and then, I'm launching a cosmetics business.
And that's pretty much all and then making
it up in the world against as for
as I can. And then becoming a mo
and a billionaire and start your own magazine
and... You're right. Yes yes So what are
what are your interest when you're not going
to school when you're not envisioning your mo
dreams,
How how do you keep busy?
That's how I do. I hustle.
I don't play around. I'm doing something towards
my own businesses.
And and what what about cosmetics
interests you? Like, what... Is that a... Is
that more of a business or do you
have a personal connection with Well,
about for, like, 3 years at very bad
skin, like, with contact dermatitis, so I could
not wear any makeup and all that. Then
this past year I was able wear makeup,
and now I like the fun cool designs.
And now my issue is, like, I can't
find stuff with my... For my skin tone.
It's too yellow and all that. And so
I feel like, I have this... There's this
perfect gap in the market where I can
just fit right into. Yeah. I I love
that you're already thinking about that. Thinking thinking
about kind of where you can slot into
the marketplace. You got a name for your
business at all? Jl list cosmetics.
Shout out Jl list Cosmetics.
So will All be on the lookout for
that? And, Caitlin, what about you? You're gonna
go to school.
You're gonna say politics and music. That kind
of... I don't know. That's that's all over
the place. What do wanna do after you
graduate college? I'm not really sure. I know
if I wanna get my masters. Maybe go
to law school. I'm gonna have to figure
it out. Okay. What's your passion? I've been
playing Clear since I was in fifth grade,
and I'm always practicing. The past couple years,
I was really inspired going to different colleges
and listening to those bands play.
And so
me being inspired. I've been... I get home,
and I just start practicing
all day every day. Nice. And Marker, you
got room for a Cla player in in
your metal band. I mean, if it could
sound dope. And if fits in right. It'll
be it'd be the only 1, I think.
Show. Alright. Well, I'm I'm putting dreams together
here... Well, congratulations to all 3 of you
on all your success and we'll be look
forward to all the cool things coming up
for you.
Well, thank you, everyone for joining us today
in this studios is a great conversation and
best of luck them all of you. About
bad
Jiffy pop.
Didn't work doug. I'm still still there. It's
still there. Thanks again to the superintendent Student
leadership council for joining us today. Connor and
I will be back next week.