Having Your Voice Heard: Town Hall Meeting at The Village School

As a part of student government, I, along with other student body leaders, had the unique opportunity of planning and overseeing the first ever Village High School Town Hall on Dec. 9, 2017. Devised to create more transparency between the student government and students, the forum gave the elected leaders the opportunity to share the past and present happenings of the current school year. It also a created a judgement-free zone in which students were allowed to ask questions, suggest new ideas, question policies, and simply have their voices heard.

During the Town Hall, the student government was represented by the student body vanguard, compromised of President Jamie Brewton (12), Vice President William (Mack) Hutsell (12), Treasurer Dennis Fer (12) and Secretary Alex Ait-Ettajer (12). The High School Director, Carl Newman, and the High School Dean of Students, Jennifer Thomas, were also present and ready to answer questions.

Although not involved in the original creation of the Town Hall, Hutsell says that “it was brought about because the administration, and some in student government, realized that we have all spent a lot of time talking about transparency and connecting with the student body, and yet we have not done everything possible to further those goals. It was designed by Student Government to ensure it would function well and accomplish what we intended, which was informing the students about our work and understanding the student's perspective on the problems they find most pressing.”

Central topics of discussion for the Town Hall included vaping, bullying, mental health, tests, and homework, all problems that the student government felt important to address.

From questions like “If you get good grades, can you be exempt from some homework?”, to others like “Has lunch detention been helpful for people to get their work done?”, the student body vanguard was able to answer a wide range of questions and concerns from the students.

When asked about what she thought about the Town Hall, Harleen Bhatia (10) responded, “I think the town hall was a really good idea, and they definitely should have more in the future. I really like that it gave the student body a chance to speak, but I wish there was just a little more time for students to speak.”

Hutsell, too, noticed the shortcoming that Bhatia mentioned. “We were astounded by the participation we saw in the Town Hall, and it was inspiring to see so many students passionate about interacting with their school's community. Unfortunately, that desire to participate meant that many other students didn't get the chance to speak. In the future we will be making Town Halls longer and focusing on responding to questions with brevity. Outside of that, we continue to invite students to email us with any issues they'd like to see discussed within Student Government.”

In addition to Town Halls and the emails that Hutsell mentions, the Village School Student Government has other opportunities for participation and input from the student body, such as allowing them to contribute as non-voting members during the weekly Friday morning meetings.