Principal Jesse Casey surprised approximately 15 students Feb. 24 with emails congratulating them on being selected for his new Student Cabinet. The group aims to meet once a month in the Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC) to discuss relevant school topics and provide input to the principal.
“I wanted to create a group of diverse students to help me make decisions while including student voice and student perspectives,” Casey said, also mentioning that he drew inspiration from the superintendent’s student involvement initiatives, such as her Student Equity and Empathy Ambassadors Program.
East’s Cabinet was an unannounced mid-year initiative created by Casey.
Senior Zuri Trice, a member of the Student Cabinet, expressed confusion upon receiving the email, stating, “We just got an email that was like, ‘Congratulations you’ve been selected,’ but we didn’t actually apply for anything.”
During the Cabinet’s first meeting, Casey utilized a “rose-thorn” discussion technique, through which Cabinet members gave their opinions on the positives and negatives of East. They discussed school dynamics, including student-admin and teacher-admin relationships.
According to senior and Cabinet member Yasmine Ackall, the Cabinet serves as a place to “bounce ideas around and see how [administration] feels about it,”
Overall, members are happy to provide feedback, but hesitant to expect automatic results.
“We can only share what we believe; it’s kind of up to the administration to take our ideas and do whatever they want,” Trice said.
As the Cabinet is a new idea, members do not have set responsibilities yet. Casey described this year’s Cabinet as a “pilot” and made it clear he plans to continue developing the idea over time. According to Casey, all opinions expressed during their first meeting have been recorded in a spreadsheet to see if there are any commonalities to address, but the limited time left in the school year has posed a constraint.
“It felt a little last-minute,” Trice said. “But in future years, I hope it’s established at the beginning of the school year.”
Casey said the Cabinet was an initiative he would have liked to begin as soon as he was instated, but couldn’t due to other responsibilities earlier in the year.
“It was put off because I had to get things straight and establish what we needed to make this school year a success.” Casey said.
Currently, there is no application process for the Cabinet, and members are hand-picked by Casey himself.
“I’m using the rest of the school year to see if I might want to make it official next year and whether or not I want to make it a more organized group or put out an application process,” Casey said.
Many of the Cabinet members this year were chosen based on their involvement in student leadership groups and referred to the program by other staff members. However, a few members were chosen solely based on previously established relationships with the principal, with Casey stating that he wanted to hear from students who “normally wouldn’t have their voices heard otherwise.”
If the Cabinet resumes operation next school year, Casey said that it will be more accessible for the general student body to participate in.
“If any students are interested in participating, [they should] send me an email,” he said.
Image by Hammond Cole Sherouse & Daniel Cefalo/The ECHO
