Student survey to command board attention

Looking at something from a different angle can reveal much that hadn’t been noticed before.

That principle may have been evident at a school board meeting Monday night.

School leaders made plans Monday to systematically consider student opinion in coming meetings, the result of advocacy on the school board by two new student representatives.

Appointed as ex-officio representatives in October 2022, Juniors Layla Flett and Celeste LaPlace have been discussing with other Grand Coulee Dam School District board members ways to get student concerns reflected in board discussions and decisions.

In December, they had proposed a survey of students on a few topics. As students were about to leave for the winter break, they were asked to take a survey.

Flett and LaPlace presented some results to the board Monday night.

Among the survey topics were questions on understanding graduation requirements, whether weighting grade point averages so higher-level courses count for more would encourage taking such courses, whether students are feel they’ve been prepared to graduate, what ideas they have for fulfilling community service requirements, and more.

The high school only currently offers one advanced course, Superintendent Paul Turner said. Board Chair Rich Black said the board has thought the school was too small to support much more, calling it a supply-and-demand problem.

But students can be discouraged from taking harder classes because it can hurt their grand point average. Weighting the grades in such courses might change that, the survey results suggest.

Asked if a weighted GPA system would encourage them to take advanced classes “meaning honors, AP, or running start classes,” 77.4% said yes or maybe. Only 9.7% said no. Another 12.9% said they wouldn’t take challenging courses either way.

The school board will take a closer look at issues in the student survey in coming meetings.