Members of the Site Council discussed priorities for the rest of the year in a collaborative group oriented meeting on Wednesday Nov. 30th. The council is made up of students, teachers, parents and administrators who work together every other week. The focus for the most recent meeting was action-based goals for the second semester.

Principal Barnaby Payne led Wednesday’s meeting with team building, where members moved around the room and discussed their goals for the Site Council with others. In the next activity, envelopes with different strips of paper were distributed to members. The papers were labeled with different subtopics of Redwood that members ordered in their ideal prioritization.  

Student counselor, Tami Wall, has worked at Redwood for 21 years and estimates that she has been a member of the council on and off for half of her career.

“It’s the cross-reference of having different stakeholders in the same room. Having all of those different voices is my favorite part because this is a large school and we want everybody’s perspective,” Wall said. 

Wall appreciates the blend of opinion that is expressed within the Site Council. More specifically, her own voice as a student counselor allows her to give input with the intersecting interests of the greater Redwood population in mind.

“We’re in between administration and teachers.We represent parents, we represent teachers and we represent our students. My goal is to just contribute with that kind of broad perspective,” Wall said.

 Freshman representative, Zara Bhandari, along with other class representatives, is responsible as a liaison from these council decisions to Associated Student Body (ASB) meetings to include leadership student feedback in projects. 

“I want to create change that actively results in a positive outcome at Redwood, that can be seen throughout time and continue to help the community,” Bhandari said.

As a conclusion to the meeting, members came to a consensus on the most pressing issues in order to set priorities for next semester. They decided to work on reviewing and monitoring the school action plan and figure out what their next steps would be regarding the Valedictorian.

Third year student representative and junior Sarani Puri noted finding a common theme has been important for the Site Council.

“Every year we make some goals for ourselves. They’re mostly about diversity and inclusion and making sure that kids have the support that they need,” Puri said.

As a positive way to wrap up the meeting, members went around and expressed their “celebrations, affirmations and recognitions” as a way to demonstrate gratitude. This was an inspiring and heartfelt way for members to recognize each other and other Giants. These 16 members all carry their own resolutions and responsibilities that will continue to benefit the Redwood community. Learn more about the Site Council’s goals and members here.