- November 22, 2024
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It was a trial by fire for Flagler Student School Board Members Kaylee Briggs and Karissa Jackson. Their first School Board meeting on Sept. 21 was interrupted as speakers at times became combative.
But the two high school seniors were not scared off. The school district began the Student School Board Member program in 2002. The students, representing each Flagler County high school, have non-voting seats on the dais.
Both Jackson and Briggs have extremely busy schedules without being Student School Board members. Jackson, a student at Matanzas, has a 4.98 GPA, which ranks her in the top 10 of her class. She is dual-enrolled at Daytona State College and is working toward a Cambridge AICE International Diploma. She president of the Matanzas Honor Society, is on the weightlifting team and plays lacrosse. Jackson's dream college is the University of Pennsylvania where she wants to pursue a degree in systems engineering.
Briggs, a student at Flagler Palm Coast, has a 5.187 GPA in the International Baccalaureate program. She is the cadet group commander in the Air Force JROTC, is active in several clubs and is interning with Coastal Cloud LLC. She would like to attend the University of Florida and major in mathematics or engineering.
They sat down with the Observer before their second School Board meeting recently and discussed why they wanted to represent their schools and what issues are important to their classmates.
Why did you decide to be Student School Board members?
Karissa: It gave me an opportunity to provide a voice for the students.
Kaylee: Being a student voice, I think, that’s really powerful, especially among adults who perhaps have become a little more removed from what the classroom is like and what it may be really like to be a student. Bringing that voice to the board is really important.
What School Board issues are you most interested in?
Karissa: I think primarily the dress code. It’s the issue that students are most concerned about, and I think it’s definitely time that we change it and update it so that more students are comfortable with what they’re wearing, and that they can express themselves with their clothes. Another thing is student mental health with COVID-19 and school shootings and just dealing with the stress of our everyday lives. I feel like students are in a very vulnerable place in terms of their mental health. I think it’s time for the School Board to show that they care about students’ mental wellbeing.
Kaylee: I totally agree about the dress code as the foremost issue. Karissa and (School Board member Cheryl Massaro) and I are all putting together a teen town hall. So that will bring even more student voices to the School Board, albeit indirectly. Other topics that we’ll have at our teen town hall meetings include tobacco use, and students vaping e-cigarettes. Things like that are all current issues to the students. Picking issues that connect with students is what’s going to get the best engagement out of them, and to truly engage the public opinion at the schools is super valuable, I think.
Vaping and tobacco. What makes them hot-button issues?
Kaylee: A lot of it is just making students aware of the addictive qualities among other unstudied aspects.
Karissa: I think if you’re caught vaping, students want the discipline to focus more on education and rehabilitation, rather than just punishing them.
Going back to dress code, what would you like to see and what have you heard from your fellow students?
Karissa: Instead of bottoms having to be (no shorter than) four inches above your knee, it should really come mid-thigh; being able to wear shirts that don’t have a collar and being able to wear athletic wear that doesn’t necessarily have the school logo; and sweat pants, joggers, any of those types of bottoms as well.
Kaylee: I know FPC has a dress code committee of sorts. Some of their things include pretty much everything Karissa already said about begin more lenient on the type of tops students can wear and really formulating an entire dress code that’s both broad and allows students to feel safe, and still maybe conforms to the professional environment that you’d like to see in a school, but maybe isn’t so stifling for students.
After your first School Board meeting, did you have second thoughts?
Karissa: I think it was a great opportunity to practice maintaining your composure, even when things can get heated. Being able to be a good listener and remaining impartial throughout. And showing the community that you care about their issues.
Kaylee: Unexpectedly, I thought it was a really great networking moment after the meeting. I talked to a bunch of people that I probably never would have talked to had I not been at the meeting. And I think our behavior at the board meeting, well, maybe not admired by our classmates, but they gave us a thumbs up. After we went to the meeting they seemed all that more engaged with what we were doing here.
Do you think now that you have seats at the table, your classmates will pay more attention to what the Board is doing?
Karissa: I think students are definitely becoming more interested in what’s happening at the School Board meetings. They’re realizing that the work that we’re doing here directly impacts them, so I think they’re becoming more interested in being a part of the process. Whether it’s coming to the virtual teen town hall that we’re doing or speaking at the meetings, I think they’re realizing you can have a larger voice by attending these meetings.
Kaylee: And the platform that we allow for students is just going to be completely compounded and multiplied by these teen town hall meetings.
How much time do you spend on social media on an average day?
Karissa: I probably spend about an hour on social media just to get away from everything I’m doing. It allows me to decompress, see what my friends are up to. I think my preferred (platform) is Instagram.
Kaylee: My preferred is definitely Instagram as well. It’s a cool platform for a myriad of things, like artists. There’s a lot of stuff on there that’s pretty engaging.
Have schools returned to normal or is this another stressful year with COVID?
Karissa: I think we’re starting to go back to where we were. I think students are still kind of conditioning from virtual learning to in-person. I think this year students are realizing they have to be more on top of work. I think teachers were more lenient in the past because of COVID-19.
Kaylee: I would say a challenge would definitely be school morale. Even among teachers and faculty, getting everybody back into a swing of things. FPC’s done a lot of things to try to help with school spirit, whether it be student sections at football games or just trying to push that feeling of normality to get things back to where they were before.
Karissa: I think the homecoming celebrations have definitely helped with increasing school spirit. That was probably low before, and really uniting students again for the love of our schools.
If you guys were in charge, the queens of your schools, what changes would you make?
Karissa: I think one of the changes I would make would be to introduce an orchestra program at my school. We do have the Flagler Youth Orchestra. I was a part of it for about 10 years, and I loved every moment of it. But I think allowing students to play in an orchestra in school and allowing for that collaboration between string orchestra and band and string orchestra and the theater program, playing in the pit, I think that would present a great opportunity to expand the already amazing music program that we have in Flagler County.
Kaylee: If I was queen of the school …
Karissa: You would make everybody join ROTC.
Kaylee: (Laughing) I would make everyone join ROTC. No not at all. Obviously, that’s like a focus for me. I think it’s a great program. I think it should have a lot of attention. Even in ROTC there’s a lot of sub-organizations that students participate in. I think it’s such a great program, and I think a lot of it should be extended.
Has being a Student Board Member enhanced your interest in politics?
Karissa: I wasn’t really thinking of becoming a politician before becoming the School Board representative for my school, but I definitely think it’s increased my interest in becoming more involved in the government.
Kaylee: Some families have always participated in this type of thing, like School Board. I think it’s a really big shame that a lot of families don’t because anyone can make a public comment and introduce an idea. And I think above all, being a School Board representative for my school has really showed me that there’s a lot of power in just saying something.
