SGC Undergoes Redesign To Conform To State Regulations
here has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the current model of Berkeley High School’s School Governance Council (SGC). This committee is the main governing body of BHS and decides important issues such as the school–wide curriculum and fund allocations. The SGC is meant to represent every group of people that are affected by the decisions made by the council, but recently various groups have raised concerns that not everyone is getting the equal representation to which they are entitled.
On the SGC, students and parents have four representatives each with two alternates, while teachers and staff have 21 people on the council. This is different from the makeup of the typical high school governing body: the School Site Council (SSC). SSC representation is set by law, including 50 percent parents, 25 percent students and 25 percent teachers. This structure gives more voting power to parents and teachers. However, in 2006 BHS combined its SSC with its SGC and the balance of representation changed.
Peggy Scott, a parent representative on the SGC, said that the combined SGC and SSC is “not in compliance” with what is required by the state and she is very concerned about the inequality for students and parents.
A policy subcommittee comprised of three people has been created to investigate whether the current structure of the SGC is working well. SGCmember Ray Cagan, the lead teacher for the Arts and Humanities Academy, said, “It could stay this way next year.” However, Cagan also said that this might not be such a bad thing, because “the way that it’s [currently] set up is representative” of the groups of people at BHS. There are teacher representatives from every small school and learning community, as well as representatives from other teaching departments. If the proportions recommended for the SSC were used, the group would have to exclude some of these groups from being represented or the SGC would have to expand to keep the number of students and parents equal in relationship to the teachers. Cagan thinks that changing the structure to be like the government–sanctioned SSC would hurt rather than help in terms of all voices being heard.
Many people agree with Cagan’s sentiment and feel that the current structure is the best. Richard Ng, assistant to the BHS principal, believes that the current structure is working well and added that it works better than the former structure of a separate SSC and SGC. He said the current structure “brings everyone together at one table,” which makes for a “more effective and more efficient” group. Despite this assumed increased efficiency, it remains to be seen whether the council is in accordance with state guidelines for school governance.
The subcommittee investigating the SGC is presenting new bylaws for the group to a public forum on May 10 before they propose them to the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education on May 12.
Scott hopes for “a very new and different structure than we had before” in which the SGC more closely resembles a SSC with the suggested distribution of staff, parents and students. She feels that this structure is well designed for meeting different situations and that it will lead to a better balance between all parts of the BHS community. Scott added that this year “the student participation has been fantastic” and that they have made a big difference in the decision making process. If the structure of the SGC is altered, students would have a greater voice in decisions.
Cagan feels that the current structure is better than a SSC structure because it includes a broad range of staff that would not be possible otherwise. The committee investigating the SGC will have to carefully weigh both perspectives while writing a new set of regulations. As Ng reasoned, “If we’re all working just for the students, why does it even matter?”
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