Students praise new advisory council but one senior says district has failed on mental-health responses

Adrian Harris, director of student learning and development, introduced the district's first Superintendent Student Advisory Council (SSAC) and invited students from Dundee Crown, Hampshire and Jacobs high schools to summarize their year. Students described professional development, networking in Chicago, and projects including a phone policy and Vision of Success survey that they said improved student voice.

Sasha Bosevic (Dundee Crown) and multiple other student speakers praised the opportunity to "leave the district and my school better than I found it" and to bring student perspectives directly to administrators.

Vincent Flores, an SSAC member, delivered a sustained and critical account of what he called the district's failures on student mental health. "Since then, three students connected to our district community have died by suicide," Flores said, adding that all three occurred at Hampshire High School and arguing that student leadership had been used more as a public image than as a vehicle for meaningful change.

"We are not given meaningful influence over what is discussed or prioritized," Flores said. He also said grief counseling or assemblies were not provided for Hampshire High students after recent suicides and that he was disappointed in how the committee handled these crises. Flores closed by saying he would "give it back" (a reference to a graduation item he said he wore) because he felt he had not represented the council's purpose.

Superintendent Dr. Smith and SSAC staff thanked students for participating and described the council as a new vehicle for student voice; administration said 12 students are leaving the council and eight are returning and expressed appreciation for the students' work. The board and administration did not adopt formal policy actions in response at the meeting; next steps for addressing the student speaker's requests were not specified during the session.