Now several months into the school year, the student representatives to the Board of Education are working on several investigative and policy-related projects, both at the school and district level.
Firstly, the student representatives have begun sending monthly newsletters to the student body. In both sent thus far, they have included a survey on seniors’ preference for graduation. The student representatives have also continued to meet with Principal Martha Hardesty and Assistant Superintendent for Operations Dr. Daniel Breiman. Most recently they discussed the possibility of a paper-only recycling program. Last year’s recycling efforts limited contamination but students are still depositing unclean drink containers in the bins. A possible solution is creating paper-only recycling baskets, which would be easier to maintain and regulate.
Additionally, the student representatives have been investigating the bathroom shortage at IHS. Some high school students have clogged the toilets with e-cigarettes, which has resulted in at least one stall being closed down temporarily for repairs. Administration is considering installing occupancy sensors which have been used at DeWitt Middle School to collect data on how many students are in one stall at a time. The student representatives hope that this new development will help to reduce drug usage in bathrooms.
The student representatives also asked Hardesty if more bathroom stalls could be installed, especially considering the loss of urinals during construction last year. However, it is unclear whether this is likely to happen, due to budget and space constraints. A possible small restroom holding solely urinals has been proposed as a compromise, but that model is a theoretical exercise and no plans to build such a room have been set in motion.
Lastly, in light of the German exchange program, the student representatives asked administration why “shadowing” (the process of a guest tailing another student throughout the school day) was disbanded under nearly all other circumstances. The response was that, in the past, students had abused that policy to bring their cousins and friends from other districts into the school. Since teachers have limited space in their classrooms, this was a logistical issue, especially when students did not give the school more than several weeks’ notice.
As always, any thoughts or concerns about ongoing or potential projects can be sent to the student representatives at their respective emails, which are listed below.
Claire Park ’25: cp14@icsd.k12.ny.us
Jingying Xu ’27: jx1@icsd.k12.ny.us
Georgina Malikopoulou ’25: gm1@icsd.k12.ny.us
Caedmon Sethupathy ’25: cs11@icsd.k12.ny.us
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