The Student Equity Leadership Team (SELT) is a new organization that focuses on students needs at Riverside Brookfield High School. It was created to make sure the students have a voice and get to speak their mind on what is going on at RB. SELT is for students to share their thoughts on the school in order to make RB a safer and more inclusive space.
SELT was created for students to feel heard and included and to ensure that the administration isn’t the only one making decisions for the school. It allows all students to get involved and share their opinions. The Assistant Principal of Student Affairs RB, David Mannon, expands on what the inspiration for this team was and how it started.
“The student equity leadership team came out of the DELT [diversity equity leadership team] committee…The DELT goal was to look at and continue training and engagement in diversity equity inclusion in the areas of systems, teaching, and learning,” Mannon said.
The DELT started with a group of administrators who wanted to come up with an idea to get students more involved in the school.
“The area that we kind of oversee is the student voice calamity culture. We call that our strand. So, myself, Ms. Carey, Ms. Brown, Mr. Zilinger, and Ms. Harsy were our kind of strand leaders in that area, and what we looked at was what we could come up with to not only hear and address the students voice but then understand the climate and culture of the building. So what we thought was in the best interest of this building was to put together a leadership team of students,” Mannon said.
SELT has many hopes to continue to grow and add on more students. One of the main goals as of now is for the students to develop a survey that is based on students’ thoughts on the culture of the building.
“The goal is to have this all done and have the responses reviewed by the end of this year and then really look at targeting some areas that we can improve on, or things we can enhance going into next school year. Then, this is going to be a consistent team that is going to meet,” Mannon said.
One of the members of the SELT, senior Kurt Striegel, discusses how he joined SELT to help improve the school’s culture.
“I just feel like I can, you know, be part of it and help the student body and see what we can do to make it better and more comfortable for everyone,” Striegel said.
Students’ voices are immensely important for the school’s decision-making in order for administrators to know what to work on and improve. Senior David Kummer feels SELT is important to the RB community for this reason.
“Well it’s working to improve the circumstances for all students here, so I think that’s good for everyone and beneficial to the student population to have some people look out for everybody,” Kummer said.
Sophomore Amore Allende is another member of SELT. Allende feels this team is a very inclusive opportunity for many students.
“I feel very included, like everyone has a voice. Everyone speaks for not just yourself but everybody and the whole student body,” Allende said.
With this team, the administration will be able to know what the opinions are on different things in the building which will better the school and create a more positive environment.
“I think anytime that you give kids opportunities to voice either concerns, critiques, positives, [or] improvements that’s always a good thing, so we want to make sure that students feel like they can express their voice but also feel like they have their voices feel valued,” Mannon said.
