The district office crackled with tension at a Feb. 11 Palo Alto Board of Education meeting, while words were fired across the room. As community members listened, some in defiance, others in quiet frustration, murmurs of discontent grew louder with each heated exchange.
Recent divisions in our district demonstrated during this meeting have drawn PAUSD’s focus away from students. After attending the board meeting in-person, listening to the meeting transcript and interviewing community members, I have come to the conclusion our community needs to stop this division and make students the forefront of discussion.
Since board trustee Rowena Chiu’s controversial decision to share a social media post from a group called Asians Against Wokeness, and the recent attempt to recall board Vice President Shounak Dharap, our community has engaged in unnecessary mudslinging. And with this polarization, parents and community members are politicizing students’ needs to shape their personal agendas.
This is not to say the debate surrounding Board of Education decisions is invalid. Rather, the divisive and disrespectful manner pervasive throughout these conversations –– whether it’s inappropriate use of social media or yelling during meetings –– go against what students are supposed to learn in our district: respectful disagreement, empathy and civil discourse.
Debates are healthy, but not in the way they are currently being carried out. Our community has failed to model how to productively navigate differences in opinion, and in doing so, we have forgotten the core of all of our polarized discussions –– students.
During the Feb. 11 board meeting, important student issues were brought to the table including a Partners in Education presentation, a policy on protecting education for undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ+ students, as well as the Local Control and Accountability Plan’s mid-year report. While hours were spent promoting or defending parent opinions on Chiu’s actions, these other topics that impact students directly received mere minutes.
Also at the Feb. 11 meeting, Superintendent Don Austin shared in his Superintendent’s Report the results of a Jan. 15 student advisory meeting, which consisted of Austin and 20 students, including me.
During this student advisory meeting, which Austin intentionally made student-led, we dove into debate about school policies and issues that affect the student body at large. We conversed on timely and relevant topics such as school borders, phone policy, evidence-based grading and AI use in classrooms.
In contrast to recent board meetings, the student advisory meeting –– solely with Austin and students in attendance and without community interference –– was one of the best ways to promote student voices in a time when students are not at the forefront of discussion. It provided direct and necessary feedback from our student body to the leader of our district.
Austin not only put trust in students to lead the meeting, but he also put trust in students’ voices and provided an opportunity for us to express ourselves. The students and Austin fostered an environment that allowed for nuanced, respectful and civil discussion that focused on the needs and the desires of students, something conspicuously missing from community discussions.
Moving forward, our community should take inspiration from these civil discussions between students, and more private student-advisory meetings should be held with administrators in order to provide students an opportunity to have more direct influence in their school experience.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the community is constantly adding fuel to the flames of divisive conversations. In light of this, I encourage everyone to keep respectful dialogue in mind and consider if your contributions are truly helping or hurting those at the heart of our discussions, the sole reason anyone is arguing in the first place: the students.
Student journalism has taught me to let interviews drive the narrative. Maybe our community should let student voices drive the conversation too.
