Meet the first all-female team of student liaisons to the Valley Stream Central High School District Board of Education

This year, the role of student liaison to the Valley Stream Central High School Board of Education has fallen on not one, but three Valley Stream high school seniors.

The new liaisons are Gunand Thind, Mary Youssef, and Ashley-Ann Francis, from Valley Stream North, Central, and South, respectively. Each one is what one would expect from a high-achieving student: top of the academic heap in their grade, quintessential go-getters in their extracurricular activities, and accustomed to striving and being busy.

College-bound and leadership-driven, they have been spoken highly of by their teachers and peers, enough to be expressly handpicked by their school principals for the role.

When considering whether to say ‘yes’ to the position, amid an already packed schedule of obligations, Thind, president of North’s ecology club and National Honor Society, realized that the position was “a way I could give back to my school district before I leave away for college, which has given me so much these past six years.”

Handpicked leaders, historic trio

The all-female trio also represents something of a historic first for the district. The position of student liaison, created in 2018 and originally conceived as a single, non-voting student representative, came after a resounding public push for student representation on the Board of Education.

The student liaison’s core responsibility is to relay the “concerns and requests from their respective student bodies” in helping to shape school district policy, according to district officials. That means if there ever was a problem or concern students felt wasn’t being sufficiently dealt with, the liaison could filter them through the board.

Previously, the student liaison position fell to one senior, alternating between each school every year. It started with former Central student Anthony Cruz, who led the charge for creating the position six years ago.

For the first time this year, however, the board’s new policy paves the way for a liaison from each school to serve simultaneously.

“As a person of color and a woman, it’s important for me to get involved and show that it isn’t a certain type of people to be in leadership, and the fact I’m a young person is important,” said Francis. “Setting good standards of character by student leaders has value, especially for other students.”

The student leaders seem to still be finding their bearings in their new role. Exchanges with the Board of Education have been slow going so far, on account of two back-to-back canceled board meetings due to weather, but progress is being made.

Thind says she is working closely with her principal, Robin Small, and has held conversations with her fellow liaisons. She and Youssef mingled and compared notes with dozens of other Long Island student representatives at the Long Island BOCES Student Forum.

Hall pass app hiccups

Topics of particular interest focus on enduring concerns like excessive cellphone usage among her peers as well as more novel ones like students’ technical headaches around using SmartPass, an electronic hall pass on a school-issued device in place of the traditional paper pass, and a sign-in sheet.

The app upgrade enables teachers to better track students’ whereabouts and document how long they’ve been outside the classroom, reportedly reducing the amount of time and legwork teachers need to keep tabs on their students.

“I definitely think there is room for improvement in these areas and for things to discuss with the board coming up,” said Thind.

“The SmartPass has made a few things complicated for some students and staff members,” said Francis.

The app allows students to go the bathroom without needing to ask for their teacher’s permission, minimizing classroom disruption and sparing more anxious students from needing to speak up. But there seems to be a learning curve to the new technology.

“Instead of signing off on a piece of paper (like the traditional way), teachers have to help students navigate the online platform,” noted Francis.

The online system requires students to select on their devices the classroom number and bathroom location they intend to use, noted Francis but “some students are not aware what classroom they’re in or not sure what bathroom they should go to.”

With graduation being just two months away, when senior events and pre-college preparations have a strong claim on a senior’s attention, the student liaisons have a thinning window of time left. Francis nevertheless remains determined to leave a noticeable impact as a student liaison before she leaves for college. Thind has also striven to make herself visible and available to students in her free periods and at the library to strike up conversations with students and listen to their issues.

“We have a diverse student body, and I try to talk to students, especially the younger ones, as much as I can,” said Thind.

Have an opinon on this article? Send an email to jlasso@liherald.com