This letter was presented to the board by a Dear JCPS Student during the Jan. 26 Board Meeting.
Dear JCPS,
Many of you know me, but for those who don’t, my name is Peyton Adelmann. I am a senior at The Academy @ Shawnee where I have attended for the last 3 and a half years. As you, the board, are setting up the budget for the school year, I want to urge you to look for yourselves before you vote to make changes. The decisions you make as a board may be too late to affect me directly, but will impact this community that I am so heavily invested in. We are more than just data points on a spreadsheet. We are students with great achievements and difficult struggles. But you cannot really grasp what my classmates and I need by just looking at a spreadsheet or by visiting a school and being led around by the adults. You need to come and spend a day in our shoes as a student; ride the buses with us, sit in our classes, eat our lunches. See what we see, and learn what we learn. Not as a Board member on a tour led around the building. But as a student, led by students. You need to live what we live every day. Only then will you really be able to make the best decisions for our futures.
From February 29 – March 4, 2016 is the national Shadow a Student Challenge. We’re asking board members and school leaders to clear calendars, silence walkie-talkies, throw on sneakers, and immerse yourselves in student life for a day. Join the community of educators who are committed to rethinking the student experience — starting by walking in the shoes of a student. We want you to follow us from the first to last bell; we’d even welcome you to ride along on the bus with us.
Each of you has a student who will be contacting you to invite you to shadow them for the day. See you at the bus stop.
