SUSD’s Student Advisory Board, composed of students from all five high schools in the district, meets every month for an open discussion centered around the successes and challenges faced at the student level. At each meeting, students also get the opportunity to share their concerns with and ask questions directly to Dr. Menzel! So far this year, topics have been wide-ranging: AI in schools, facilities questions, and vaping, to name a few. SAB students have been meeting in their subcommittees, developing strategies to achieve the Wildly Important Goals they set in the fall. Now, we look deeper into two main topics from the last SAB meetings: keeping our facilities clean and potentially bringing the Chief Science Officer program to SUSD, and we remind you of the vaping video competition, in case you missed the announcement last month.

Firstly, SUSD’s Director of Facilities and Operators Dennis Roehler joined us to address student complaints regarding the bathrooms. He expressed how overloaded maintenance staff has been by bathroom vandalism and the toll that takes on all other facilities work. He shared a slideshow of images documenting all the bathroom damage so far this school year, which was quite eye-opening. Students discussed ways to help prevent such vandalism going forward, most notably placing student artwork on bathroom stalls to transform the bathrooms into a point of pride on campus.

A new facilities subcommittee has been created, and students are working with Mr. Roehler to pilot the artwork idea sometime in the near future, as well as to address additional facilities concerns. Oftentimes, when students denigrate school property, they don’t understand all the resources and effort that go into maintaining it, and connecting SAB students with the Facilities Director is a first step in bridging the gap between SUSD students and SUSD facilities workers, helping to unite them toward achieving common goals.   

Next, representatives for the Chief Science Officers (CSOs) came to talk to SAB about what the program has to offer. Essentially, Chief Science Officers are students who are interested in science and want to take advantage of the leadership tools provided by the organization to head their own science-related initiatives called “Action Plans.” It seems like an awesome opportunity for motivated students, and there is interest in bringing it to SUSD high schools. Many SAB students have leadership roles in STEM-related clubs at their school and they could help integrate the CSO program by building into their clubs. Otherwise, school administrators could sponsor the program and elect students to become CSOs. We would want this opportunity to be open to as many interested applicants as possible; the specifics of the process haven’t yet been determined.  Reach out to Michelle Watt (michellewatt@susd.org) if you’re interested in the Chief Science Officers program or have any questions.  

Finally, in case you missed it: SAB is holding a video contest!! 

We are looking for videos surrounding the topic of vaping. We would love videos to:

• Explain the risks of vaping
• Explain WHY many students turn to vaping 
• Describe what vaping looks like ‒ knowing the signs of student use and how to identity vaping devices 
• Describe how families can have difficult conversations surrounding vapes

We’d also like videos to be:

• 0:30 - 1:30 in length
• Attention-grabbing  
• Creative!
• From a student perspective

***THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED***

The videos will be due by Sunday, February 9, 2025. To send in your videos and for any questions regarding submission, please email SAB president Victoria Bourgeois-Conti at vbourgeoisconti22@susdgapps.org. :)  

The finalists will be selected by SAB students. The winning submission will be sent to Scottsdale Parent Council to help educate parents and families about vaping, knowing the signs of use and how to identify vaping devices. We hope these peer-created videos will help students see the genuine concerns surrounding vaping and will take a moment to reflect upon the risks it poses. 

At our next meeting, students will continue working on initiatives in their subcommittees and the whole group will be sure to discuss graduation regalia, as that has been a hot-button issue lately at the high schools. It’s been a great year so far, and we look forward to a second semester full of more student discourse and insight!

Victoria Bourgeois-Conti
Arcadia High School 
SAB President

Learn More at the Source

SUSD’s Student Advisory Board, composed of students from all five high schools in the district, meets every month for an open discussion centered around the successes and challenges faced at the student level. At each meeting, students also get the opportunity to share their concerns with and ask questions directly to Dr. Menzel! So far this year, topics have been wide-ranging: from AI in schools and thoughts on curriculum creation, to facilities questions and successes in cellphone management. SAB students have now begun meeting with their respective committees, each focused on a different aspect of a thriving student’s life and what Wildly Important Goals can be set to help elevate excellence! Now, we look deeper into a major topic from the last SAB meetings: Vaping.

During the Q and A period with Dr. Menzel, students raised salient questions and points about how to curb the issue of vaping in schools. Several students showed interest in helping alleviate the problem themselves, through creating informative content or spreading awareness. Other students recommended beginning in the homes, with more parental information on what to look for when students are suspected of vaping. Overall, students agreed on the importance of starting education early, in middle school rather than high school, and creating multiple approaches to the issue. One particularly interesting option came from Saguaro High School’s StuGo - more on that later! 

After the Q and A session, students broke into our committees. The Safety and Security Committee of SAB decided to revise their WIG and will be working towards reducing vaping incidents on campus for the rest of the school year. Our advisor, Joshua Friedman, is currently pulling data regarding the number of incidents at each school, providing us a basis for understanding the extent of the issue and a means to quantitatively measure our progress toward our goal. We recognize that vapes are highly addictive, so prevention initiatives will likely be more effective among a population that has not yet tried them: middle schoolers. While students may face peer pressure to try vaping during their middle school years, the substance itself is largely new to them. Their upfront knowledge of vapes should hopefully make a difference in the decision they make when presented with a vape for the first time. Beyond the educational aspects, we also know that using an addictive substance is the symptom of a larger issue. Focusing on the vapes without focusing on the root cause is a missed opportunity to truly help students in need. Providing and promoting the availability of mental health resources and improving the school culture are ways that SUSD can help students most holistically. Most of the existing policy surrounding vapes is reactionary or in response to student infractions, but we would like to improve on the preventative side. Additionally, reactionary policy can be difficult to enforce when the problem is so large-scale. Some SUSD schools have tried out vape detectors, but the high frequency of detections combined with the large number of moving students on campus made their implementation rather impractical. 

The Safety and Security Committee will keep you updated as to the specifics of our plan to lessen vaping. One proposed idea is PSAs and anti-vaping education, specifically eye-catching visual media around schools to reinforce the risk of vaping. An additional idea is working with local police to help prevent student acquisition of vapes and other illicit substances, targeting the suppliers and stopping the problem at the source. Finally, improving relations between students and Security officers may help to reduce the amount of rule infractions. This applies to fighting, ID policy compliance, and, potentially, vaping. Knowing that Security will catch and alert administration to your vaping but also knowing that they support students and want to help them not make that choice may encourage some students to think twice about breaking the rules and choose to change their behavior.  The tone set by school staff helps create the student environment.  When students and staff have more mutual respect, students may not want to constantly risk a battle with Security and may instead hold off on vaping at school.

Additionally, the Saguaro Student Government wants to tackle this problem and play a major part in eliminating nicotine usage in our school district. To start, we began filming ten- to thirty-second short films advertising the harmful effects of vaping. Each grade was assigned at least two videos to be created. Our goal is for the videos to reach high school students, as well as middle school students, and make a personable impact on preventing e-cigarette addiction. Although the videos are short and sweet, this is just the beginning of a long road ahead where SUSD can go vape-free!

SAB loved this idea so much and is announcing its own video contest!! We are looking for videos surrounding the topic of vaping. We would love videos to:

• Explain the risks of vaping
• Explain WHY many students turn to vaping 
• Describe what vaping looks like - knowing the signs of student use and how to identity vaping devices 
• Describe how families can have difficult conversations surrounding vapes

We’d also like videos to be:

• 0:30 - 1:30 in length
• Attention-grabbing  
• Creative!
• From a student perspective

The videos will be due by January 12, 2025 (the Sunday of the first week back from break). To send in your videos and for any questions regarding submission, please email SAB president Victoria Bourgeois-Conti at vbourgeoisconti22@susdgapps.org. :)  

The finalists will be selected by the SAB students. The winning submission will be sent to Scottsdale Parent Council to help educate parents and families about vaping, knowing the signs of use and how to identify vaping devices. We hope these peer-created videos will help students see the genuine concerns surrounding vaping and will take a moment to reflect upon the risks it poses. 

As SAB students look forward to their next meeting, there’s no doubt that some past topics will be brought up for further discussion and that new ideas and concerns will be shared. We are excited for more honest discourse and student perspectives! 

Victoria Bourgeois-Conti, Fiona Riley, and Brick Shultz

Learn More at the Source

Student Advisory Board

SUSD’s Student Advisory Board, composed of students from all five high schools in the district, meets every month for an open discussion centered around the successes and challenges faced at the student level. At each meeting, students also get the opportunity to share their concerns with and ask questions directly to Dr. Menzel! So far this year, topics have been wide-ranging: from AI in schools and thoughts on curriculum creation, to facilities questions and successes in cellphone management. SAB students have now begun meeting with their respective committees, each focused on a different aspect of a thriving student’s life and what Wildly Important Goals can be set to help elevate excellence! Now, we look deeper into three important topics from the last SAB meetings: student insight on AI incorporation in the school day, the significance of college and career resources, and each committee’s Wildly Important Goals. 

As Artificial Intelligence becomes increasingly prominent, schools have the opportunity to embrace the moment and harness whatever potential for creativity and learning AI offers. Students discussed that while generative AI can be a means of avoiding meaningful learning, it can also be a valuable educational tool that provides personalized explanations of difficult concepts. I personally use it to review concepts in my math and government classes. Other students shared how they use it to generate review problems or how it aided a video project they created. In SAB’s discussion of incorporating AI into the classroom, programs like MagicSchool and Khanmiga came up because they offer educational resources through AI tools. Encouraging the good-faith use of technological resources begins with a common understanding of these tools. As teachers better acquaint themselves with ChatGPT and other AI tools, they can better understand their students and create assignments that adjust to the changing technological landscape.

Meeting changing times by implementing new programs and tools was a recurring suggestion, not one limited to AI. For example, as college admission becomes more competitive, students in the College & Career Committee expressed their wish to receive dedicated instruction on résumé writing so they can most effectively pursue internships/jobs/any other opportunities. The committee discussed how valuable it would be to have such resources more readily accessible to SUSD high school students. Especially because the district invests money in certain tools to support students with résumés and testing, setting some time aside to utilize these resources during school would be very helpful. 

As SAB looks toward sparking positive change throughout the 2024-2025 school year, each committee set a Wildly Important Goal for May 2025. For the College & Career Committee, it was increasing the number of ECAP components to be done at all high schools (rather than on student’s own time) for: résumé writing, internship investigations, alumni chats for post-secondary exploration, and student presentations on CTE programs. For the Academic Excellence Committee, it was creating promotional materials to highlight the Day in the Life of an SUSD High School Student, helping to show prospective students the rigor of SUSD coursework. Then, for the Climate and Culture Committee, it was creating and participating in podcasts to share students’ favorite experiences in SUSD! For the Safety & Security Committee, it was raising awareness of SUSD’s safety and security efforts, so students are not discouraged to miss school. Finally, for the Technology & Communication Committee, it was increasing the availability of resources for students regarding how to use AI properly in a classroom environment. 

As SAB students look forward to their next meeting, there’s no doubt that some past topics will be brought up for further discussion and that new ideas and concerns will be shared. We are excited for more honest discourse and student perspectives! 

Victoria Bourgeois-Conti, Arcadia HS, SAB President
Fiona Riley, Saguaro HS, SAB President-Elect

Learn More at the Source

The Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) proudly continues its tradition of supporting a Student Advisory Board (SAB) of representatives from each of our five high schools. These student representatives meet monthly with the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education and engage with District leaders through various subcommittees of student interest. Additionally, they work closely with their site principals to organize Teen Town Hall events, which are designed to gather valuable student feedback.

SUSD is dedicated to enhancing both academic excellence and extracurricular opportunities by actively incorporating student perspectives.

The Student Advisory Board provides crucial insights to the Superintendent and the District Leadership Team, helping to elevate the quality of education and address concerns raised by students during Teen Town Halls. SAB serves as a vital bridge between students and the school district, ensuring that student voices are heard and valued.

Learn More at the Source