July 21, 2020
ADVISORY: Students, School Staff Share Perspectives on Reopening K-12 Schools
As schools begin to release their reopening plans, the Education Justice Collective’s Move School Forward team, which includes the Prichard Committee Student Voice Team, is hosting a Town Hall about organizing safe, equitable and justice-centered transitions back to school in the fall. Using a student-moderated “town hall'' format, those directly impacted by school reopenings — students, school staff and administration — will answer both pre-submitted and live questions from members of the media and the public. The event will close with specific calls to actions for viewers to advance increased federal funding for schools and participate in nationwide direct actions to demand teacher and student safety.
What: Town Hall on Reopening K-12 Schools
Who:
Krupa Hegde (moderator), Coping with COVID Project Lead, Prichard Committee Student Voice Team
Lu Young, Chair, Kentucky Board of Education
Chloe Pressley, high school senior, C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Virginia
Malinalli Perez, high school junior, Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate in Los Angeles, CA
Jonathan Haines, RN, school nurse in Boston Public Schools, member of the Boston Teachers Union Nurse Faculty Senate and the BTU Collective Bargaining Committee
Dmitri Holtzman (guest), Director of Education Justice Campaigns, Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)
When: Tuesday, July 21st at 7 p.m. EST / 4 p.m. PST
Where: Interested students, journalists and members of the public can register for the town hall on Zoom. The event will also be streamed live and posted afterwards to YouTube.
Questions: Students, journalists and members of the public are invited to submit questions for speakers ahead of time or ask questions in the live chat during the event.
Please RSVP and direct additional inquiries to Jenna Yuan, Student Voice’s Director of Communications, at or 425-260-8146.
About Move School Forward:
As we are inundated with calls for “reopening schools” and returning to normal, it is crucial that we demand a just future for our education system that includes students as full participants in the decision-making process, from the school to state levels. Where people are reimagining the future of schools, the voices of the most marginalized students are consistently sidelined. The Education Justice Collective, including Student Voice, Our Turn, The Prichard Committee Student Voice Team, UrbEd Advocates, Youth Activism Project, Students for Equitable Public Schools, GenUp, Students for Education Equity, Teens Take Charge, Young Organizers United, HISD Student Congress, Oregon Student Voice and IowaSLI has outlined key principles to move school forward.
The Kentucky Student Voice Team is an independent, youth-led, statewide organization that supports students as research, policy, and advocacy partners to ensure Kentucky’s education system is as equitable, just, and as excellent as it can be. Until 2021, it was part of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, an independent, nonpartisan, citizen-led organization working to improve education in Kentucky—early childhood through postsecondary.