001We're going to start this event and meeting. I call to order the Oswego Community Unit School District Board of Education Public Forum. Can I have roll call, please? Mr. Serone? Here. Dr. Martin? Here. Dr. Mario? Dr. Ms. Robinson? Ms. C? Ms. Winemiller? Okay, can everybody stand for Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you, everybody. Dr. Kildea? Yeah, good evening, everyone. What an exciting night. I want to thank everyone for coming out and so thrilled to have our students here. Um this is such an important tradition the board has led. Um the student-led forum and you have showed out tonight, students, and I'm so proud of you already. And I want to thank families and parents and principals and teachers and education were here also to support their students in sharing their voices as part of our public
002forum. I'm now going to send uh pass it over to uh our board president, Mr. Serone. Hello, everybody. Good evening and welcome to our student-led board forum, Speak and Spark. We are grateful to have so many students, families, staff, and community members here tonight. This forum is an important opportunity for our students to highlight the programs and experiences that help them feel connected and develop a strong sense of belonging in our schools. In SD 308, we deeply value student voice. Our students bring important perspectives that help guide our work and strengthen our school community. That is one of the reasons we proudly include student board members who help ensure student ideas and experiences are represented in our conversations and decisions. Tonight, I have the honor of introducing our student board members who will lead this
003evening's showcase. Please join me in welcoming Daywick Moral Itharan from Oswego East High School and Sahar Saheer from Oswego High School. They will guide us through tonight's Speak and Spark forum and introduce student programs and voices that make our district such a vibrant and supportive place to learn. Thank you all for being here and now I'll turn it over to Daywick and Sahar. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for tonight's Speak and Spark. My name is Daywick Moral Itharan. My name is Joel Asuka. And I'm Sahar Saheer and Manal Akram unfortunately couldn't make it tonight. We are the student ambassadors a part of the student part of the superintendent student advisory council which also is known as SSAC. The purpose of SSAC is to amplify student voices and perspective in district level decision-making while
004promoting leadership, rightful presence, and community involvement among a diverse group of students. This club fosters a sense of belonging by working hard together and informing ways we can all help our high school communities better student-teacher relationships. We come together to put our input in different areas we might see need needing work when it comes to how students feel in the classrooms. Now, before we start today, um I want to ground us in the attributes of a portrait of a learner. Which shows us the kind of skills and qualities we want all students to build while they're in school and even after they graduate. But the portrait of a learner focuses on more than just academics. It includes things like being a good communicator, working well with others, problem-solving, learning from challenges, using technology responsibly, and
005understanding ourselves and others. And when we focus on these qualities, it helps students feel a sense of belonging, staying connected, and exploring what they enjoy. These opportunities also help students grow, be creative, and try new things. Which is why for today, we're going to ask a few questions to club representatives about how their activities connect to different areas of the portrait of a learner and what these experiences mean to them. So, at this time, if we could please have student representatives from each club join us on stage. Oh, there it is. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay, starting with the first attribute of portrait of a learner, which is engaged communicators and collaborators, the question the first question is, how has your club or activity helped you talk and share ideas with others? Can I please
006have representatives from the Quill and Scroll Journalism Honor Society please raise their hand? Okay. The mic? Oh, sorry. The mic is getting handed to you. My bad. All right, thank you. Oh, sorry. How has your club or activity helped you talk and share ideas with others? Uh so, we're Quill and Scroll and we're like a journalism club and we're journalists and we have to communicate a lot of people with ourselves and also just like other people that we interview. Um and also like we're communicating to the world with uh facts and just other things. Uh so, it helps with uh person-to-person and just like online communication. Perfect. Um can you representative from MSA, can you please raise your hand? Perfect. Hello, my name is Abdullah Obaid and with Muslim Students Association at Oswego High School.
007Um question again. How has your club or activity helped you talk and share ideas with others? So, my club relates is mostly about communication, especially with our larger community. Um there's a lot of misconceptions about who we are as a people, who my culture is, and it work we work our best in order to break down these misconceptions and show you the truth about who we are. We're not a we're not a people of terror and anger, but like you know, we're we're all students, we're all human. We share the same values and beliefs as many of you do. Right? The only the only thing different about us is our religion and where I was born. So, we kind of we kind of do our best to break down those barriers between our society and
008show that we're all the same same person. Thank you. All right, thank you. Um then can Oswego East Model UN Club representative please stand? Hi, I'm Arush from Oswego East Model UN. How Oh, wait, sorry. No worries. >> [laughter] >> Okay, how has your club or activity helped you talk and share ideas with others? So, I'm from Oswego East Model UN Club. My name is Arush. And the way our club has really shown me how to communicate with others is by really showing me how to solve problems by working with others. Model UN is where students get together and work under the pretense of countries such as Japan, Russia, any country really you can think of under the UN to solve problems. Model UN has taught me how to present to a group of people
009such as the group we have right right here to solve a problem through communication and collaboration. Thank you. Moving on to our next question, how have you learned to listen and work well with others? Can I please have the representative from the Special Olympics raise your hand? Hi, I'm Peyton and then our question was how have we learned to work well and listen with others? What I said is I learned to listen to other people's viewpoints and teach them new ways of solving problems if their original solution doesn't work. Okay, thank you so much. Uh can I have Murphy Muralists representative please stand up? Hello, everyone. I'm Adam one of the Murphy Muralists at Murphy Junior High School. Perfect. Um how have you learned to listen and work well with others? In order to listen
010or work well with others, you have to make that you have to make sure that you can cooperate with others to make sure no consequences can happen. Before starting a mural, you have to also make sure all stuff fits in its place before you start to avoid more consequences such as paint spills. That's good. Okay, um do you guys have another representative? Okay, perfect. How have you learned to listen and work well with others? Hi, I am Clara, the other Murphy Muralist. We are able to be taught independence and how to communicate in smaller groups without the teacher. It also helps when we have to clean up messes on our own because then we have to learn a sense of responsibility and how to wipe it up and what to use. >> [laughter] >> Thank
011you so much. Okay, moving on to our next section, our next attribute of portrait of a learner, which is innovative thinker and problem-solver. Starting off with the third question, how has your club or activity helped you think in a new ways in new ways? Can I get Long Beach Diversity Club representative stand up, please? This club has helped me think more carefully about other people's experience. I learned that everyone has their own backgrounds and story that you can't cannot see right away. Now, I try to understand people more better better and be more respectful. My name is Autumn and I am one of Diversity Club representative. Diversity Club has taught me to think in new ways because I realized people can see the world very differently than I do. Learning about different cultures showed me
012there's not just one normal way to live. Now, I try to see things from other people's point of view. My name is Harrison from Long Beach Elementary. Um a diversity club has helped me um think in a new way by showing that even when people do things differently, we are often trying to do the same thing. Um like caring about family and learning. It's helped me see that differences are okay. Thank you so much. Can I please get the National Honor Society to stand up, please? Are you guys part of this question? No? Okay. No worries. Moving on to the fourth question. What is a problem you faced and how did you fix it? Can I please have Thompson Junior High School Student Council, please? Hello, I'm Student Council President Adeline and this is Vice
013President Alexi. And one issue Thompson had before the Student Council was brought back was our morning announcements. They were done over the PA, which made them very boring and hard to hear because we didn't provide a visual aid. A lot of students were complaining about how difficult it was to know what was happening in our school. Now, for our morning announcements, we present a slideshow with all of the school news such as fundraisers, club sign-ups, and sports information. This way, students are able to see all of the information and not just hear it. Ever since we've had two student council members rotate weekly to present the announcements. So, students can hear their peers speaking just instead of like teachers and staff. It's boring. This allows people in student council the opportunity to practice their speaking
014and presenting skills. Student Council has received lots of positive feedback from this new form of announcements and it continues to get better each week. Okay, thank you so much. We're going to backtrack a little bit cuz we need to also hear Lexi from Coalition. Um can you please pass the mic to her? Hi. Hello, my name's Lexi Quintero and I am from Coalition Junior. Thank you. Uh the question is how has this club or activity helped you talk and share ideas with others? Coalition Junior helped me realize that my voice matters. When we talk about things like fairness and belonging, everyone has a chance to share. It helps me It helped me feel more confident speaking up and also helped me learn how to respect and really listen to other people's ideas. Thank you so
015much. Um a representative from MSA? Hello. Um nice to meet you guys again. My name is Abdullah Waheed from Oswego High School MSA. The question is what is a problem you faced and how did you fix it? Um when I first had this question, I was kind of confused. Like, what do you mean by a problem? If you ask any high schooler, the like the list is endless. But, I kind of bring it to more of the collective whole about like my whole club as a whole. Uh it's very popularly known about our defense happened 3 years ago after the attacks on Gaza and Israel, that conflict. Um there was a huge surge of about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate that surged our community. Uh just here in Plainfield, 6-year-old Dia Fahmy was stabbed 23 times,
016you know? Um just here in Menards, I was attacked by this older gentleman who was ignorant and believe everything he saw on the news. Right? We had our own peers in our in my own school who were attacked because of their beliefs and shunned and harassed online and in public. It's a very big issue that happens and we don't hear about it a lot because it's swept under the rug. Um so, how we aim to fix it is through the use of my club, the MSA. MSA builds We want to build a a strong community and a home for our students where they can feel safe and comfortable to learn about their beliefs and understand who they are and navigate throughout their beliefs. And also to teach the non-Muslims, the people who don't understand our
017culture and our religion about the truth about who we are just like I stated earlier. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Moving on to our final question, can I have the representative from the National Art Honor Society stand up? Thank you. Okay. Hi, I'm Ava Rose Micalon from Oswego High School's National Art Honor Society. And I'm Lynn Ramirez, the Vice President of the National Art Honor Society. Okay. So, now for your question. How has this activity helped you keep trying when something is hard? So, a lot of times for our activity, there's a lot of different um coordinate things that we have to make sure that students are doing. For instance, one of the main things is making sure that students have enough service hours and they're getting out into the community. Um in
018order to make sure that they're keeping doing those things and keeping active in the community, we have to push out those things and make sure that those students are getting really involved. So, just being really adamant and being really open about how it's really important to share art with your community and to just be really close to people around you. Yeah, and as art and artists um of the National Art Society, we always see all the awards students are winning, but it takes um a lot of courage to keep on submitting pieces even if it isn't placing in art shows. So, um like problems like that makes you keep going and going even though it is difficult. Thank you guys so much. Thank you everyone who has shared your voice up here. We really appreciate
019your commentary and everything you have. Back, you guys did amazing. Um for So, the first section is complete. So, all of you who have completed first section, if you could exit on the right over here. And then our next group of people can join us. Yes, a big round of applause. Thank you, everyone. Now, if we can have our next group of people slowly flow in onto the stage. Just say the name. Yeah, I was wanting to also Yes, no, of course. I was really worried that I was going to miss your people, but I just I looked at the question and I was like, "Okay, that's not my part." They got me on a This is student voice. No one will be left behind, I promise. Okay. Yes. Kiersa. starting, which is make sure
020the picture Thank you so much. I got those are really cute. I was supposed to speak on that last question as well. Are we still on that question or did they like get Okay, that's okay. That's fine. I just want to make sure. Are you Okay. Are you for uh OTC SOTC? Okay. You're the last question of the last part. Okay. Okay. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, before we start, we actually have to roll back really quickly um for Oswego High School's Performing Arts Company. So, if we can get the mic to her really quickly. Please raise your hand. Sorry. Got it. Send it down there slowly, quickly. Okay. Thank you. Hi, my name is Alyssa Nemanoff and I'm a Guild Member for Standing O Theatre Company, which is the theatre company at
021Oswego High School. Hi, Alyssa. Okay. How has this activity helped you keep trying when something is hard? So, theatre is definitely a business that comes with a lot of rejection, whether that be you're auditioning to perform on stage and you maybe don't get a role that you want or you're in the crew and something tech related and you want to audition for a certain leadership position or you're trying to do something for the show and it doesn't work out. There's definitely lot of rejection that can happen in theatre. That being said, the show must go on. So, that is a very important thing. You learn how to push through that and push through that going to see theatre for me personally and I know for many of my peers is very, very inspiring. Um I
022get very inspired by the peers around me and and all the art I can go see. And for me, that really helps me continue to push through even when things are really hard. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's give them a big round of applause. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now, we're moving on to our second section, which I'll hand off to Daywick. First of all, I just want to say these are all very great answers. Um yeah. Okay. Moving on to our third attribute, responsible digital citizen. So, if the representative of Reflector Yearbook could please stand up. Hi, I am Liam Pakarcik. I am a senior who is also the editor-in-chief for Oswego High School's yearbook. Yep. So, the question we want to ask you is how do you use technology within
023your club or activity? So, in yearbook, we are honestly little to nothing without technology. We utilize a software called Walsworth and using that, we design the fonts, we have the general design for every single page in the yearbook, we choose our colors, we design our cover as well. Um and then in our yearbook, we also write a lot of photos and caption and captions that go with the photos. Um, so without technology, we don't really have a good quality yearbook. Yep. Okay. So, now can the student representative 4250 stand up? So, the question Oh, sorry. Uh, I didn't introduce myself first time. I'm Ethan Monaghan. I'm the co-editor-in-chief for 4250, which is Oswego High School's newspaper publication. Yep. So, the question we want to ask you is, what has your club or activity taught you
024about making good choices when using digital tools or information? Uh, so yeah, we're the news publication for our school, so we're all journalism or all journalists. Uh, so we present uh, facts to those who read. Uh, and with like how digital our world is, uh, it's super easy to spread misinformation online. Uh, but I'd like to think it's equally as easy to spread truth and like good things in the world. Uh, so yeah. And now if the student representative for NAHS can please stand up. I'm Ava Rose Micalon from Oswego's NAHS. And same thing, what has your club or activity taught you about making good choices when using digital tools or information? Um, honestly, as artists, we really want to try our best to not plagiarize or copy other artists. So, finding that balance of
025a reference photo versus completely copying is what our um, art society focuses on. So, now moving from the responsible digital Okay. So, moving from the third attribute, which is responsible digital citizen, the next one is adaptive lifelong learner. So, if the representative of NAHS, yep. How has your club or activity challenge you to try something new or change how you're doing something? Um, again, as artists, trying to improve our skills means