The Westside Board of Education and Superintendent Mike Lucas recently held their monthly ‘First Fridays Feedback’ meeting on Friday, Feb. 7. During the meeting, Lucas discussed the board’s Student Advisory Committee for the Board of Education, the Westside High School Students Advisory Council for the Superintendent and a possible technology update in the district. According to Lucas, the board was impressed by the number of applicants for the Student Advisory Committee, and decided to make an additional organization because of student interest.

“We had so many applicants for the Student Advisory Committee that I took the other eight and put together a ‘Superintendent Advisory Council’,” Lucas said. “I’ve met with them once and have two board meetings scheduled. Just from my perspective as a superintendent, [it’s great] to be able to have a direct link with students.”

Lucas said the Student Advisory Committee gave the board presentations on things they were interested in learning more about throughout the district. 

“The Advisory Council gave the board some presentations on some things they would like to learn more about,” Lucas said, “as far as our school district, or things to think about. Some examples are more computer science courses, better job of recycling, leaving less of a footprint and talking about finances and all kinds of things. It’s really an impressive group, and we look forward to continuing our work with that student voice as the rest of the school year goes on.”

Lucas said that he discussed with the Superintendent Advisory Board about student ownership of Westside High School. Administration is hoping to provide resources to the student leaders to help them with this project. 

“They were talking about student ownership of Westside High School, and what students can work with administration and teaching on as far as how to take better care of bathrooms, how to be more respectful and take better care of the lunch room and eating area, and those types of things.”

The final topic brought up at First Friday Feedback was Westside’s laptops for next year. Lucas said that Westside has a four-year renewal agreement with Apple computers, therefore, the district is able to lease and stay up to date with the best technology available for students. Although beneficial, this contract is also very expensive. The 2019-2020 school year is the third year in Westside’s four-year lease agreement, causing Westside to recently begin researching possible technology renewal options. 

“We started looking at K-12 iPads,” Lucas said. “Some people got extremely excited about that, some people got extremely irate about that. No decisions have been made [so far]. We had a presentation at the Jan. 20 Board of Education Meeting, [but] there is no perfect solution.”