9/23 Town Hall Notes

Whether you were able to make it to the meeting or not, here’s what we went over! These are general paraphrased
notes, not a verbatim transcript. If you have any questions about the Town Hall you can email StuCo at
hspvastudentcouncil@gmail.com​. If you have questions for administration their emails are:
- ​ ALLEN4@houstonisd.org
Dr Allen: R
- Mr. Tellez: ​STELLEZ1@houstonisd.org
- Ms. Williams: ​awilli67@houstonisd.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS - TOPICS

Lack of time at lunch

Petition to change back Black History Production name

More student body input & representation

Diversity series

Club roles

Student mental health

In person/online school SAT question

Rainbow schedule & more on mental/physical health during virtual school

Student-wide assembly

Diversity training for teachers

Lack of time at lunch

● Shelby​: Because of class meetings during lunch there’s no relaxation time or extra work time during lunch.
Is it possible to have meetings after School?
● Mr. Tellez: ​There’s 66 clubs, so as administrators we may need to talk to clubs more and create a calendar
so there’s less overlap, possibly rotations.
● Ms. Williams:​ Also make sure to have communication between officers & members so within the club you
can figure out what works best.

Petition to change back Black History Production name

● Rylan​: The Spring All-School Production should be changed back to the Spring All-School Musical. There
have not been enough black students cast in all school musicals in leads, just in ensembles or not cast at
all. HSPVA is also not representative of HISD as a whole, which makes it all the more important to have
diversity/inclusion in productions. The name change was not necessary and because it has been so
important to the Black community at PVA it really should be changed back. More full description ​in petition
here.​ Over 830 signatures so far.
● Mr. Klein:
○ There has ended up being a white musical and a black musical, with the black musical getting less
resources and support. For example, there did not used to be full-time employees producing and
teaching the all-school musical. Because of this lack of staff, parents were expected to be monitors
during rehearsals, which didn’t happen with the fall school musical.
○ To address the representation at HSPVA we’ve been working more on recruiting more students to
audition to HSPVA to make it more diverse, so I definitely agree that it’s not representative of
HISD.
○ One way I wanted to reduce that gap was by changing the name, and this was a decision made
with multiple people, not just one or two. However, because we’ve been hearing student concerns
 we will be taking a look into the name and considering those suggestions. We will set up a meeting
to talk about it with administration and some of the Black student leaders.

More student body input & representation

● Josh:​ I understand that some issues involving the school need to be considered by adults and the
administration, but there are some that could use more student involvement and input. For example, the
all-school musicals decisions including the Black History Production should have been more student body
driven, and I hope the student body can be included more in that way. Another example is the Student
Council, which has not been representative of our school. They have been emphasizing this year and
should continue to do so. The lack of representation in decision making bodies usually leads to issues like
the ones we’re having right now.
● Ms. Williams: ​You bring up a good point about students needing to have a voice. A lot of times the
decisions are really time-sensitive so there’s not enough time to gather a bunch of students. If we could, we
would, but that’s not possible. However, I think we can save time and spaces to have discussions about
specific topics in forums like these.

Diversity series
● Google Form response: ​“​Diversity series and how these events are attended by majority POC”
● Mr. Tellez: ​We don’t want just people of the groups of the Diversity Series attending the events, the rest of
the student body should come, because it’s a huge opportunity to educate. I totally agree that we want to
celebrate and highlight each group and their role at PVA, but we also want others at the school to be
educated about the role. We’re actively looking for ways to get more students involved, including possibly
having Spotlight times, and also by having Diversity Series working together more.
● Student (not Form maker): ​Yes, I also think it’s important for students attending the events not to just
attend as like a party, but actually learn about and appreciate the culture. Maybe having it built more into
the school day can increase that.
● Mr. Tellez: ​Yes, with Carnaval this year there won’t just be a performance but also have 6 workshops to
educate and highlight the importance of the culture. Alphabet Soup is probably the event that has been the
most education-focused for the longest time.

Club roles
● Saranna:​ One of the new clubs this year is Korean Culture & Appreciation club, and after looking into it
there didn’t seem to be any Korean students in it. Appreciating a culture is important, but rather than just
monetizing for someone’s own use, truly understanding or listening to student voices.
● Mr. Tellez: ​Yes, that’s not the only club where that’s been brought up. Alissar brought up the Middle
Eastern club during the cultural
● At the end of the semester, I’m going to start doing an audit and look at what they’ve done, if they’re
fulfilling their mission, and how many members they have. If student organizations aren’t meeting their
purpose and their actions don’t align with their plans, then there will have to be reductions. This would be
through discussion with sponsors and club members but those discussions will definitely be had.
● Saranna​: Yeah, in APAA and with 790 Night Market we’re trying to do initiatives that make people
appreciate us beyond just food and boba. We want people to appreciate why we put an emphasis on food
and why we do the things we do.
● Mr. Tellez: ​Yes, I don’t want to lose the meaning of cultures and cultural organizations because students
just see it as free food. There of course is plenty of time for fun and levity but I agree we need to strike a
balance between purely for fun and fulfilling our missions.
● Christine​: To elaborate on that, I feel like the administration shouldn’t just let clubs slide, and I don’t think
that club should have been able to be formed. In the future I don’t think stuff like this should slide. t
shouldn’t just be when the administration doesn’t think it’s fulfilling its mission is the point where it’s
stopped, but also at the beginning carefully considering the clubs at the beginning of the year.
● Mr. Tellez: ​Yes, the audit process is a new one. I also want more responsibility for the sponsors, not just
the students. It sounds like I need to have a more direct conversation with the faculty approving
 sponsorship of those organizations. And to be transparent, I need to be better at saying no. Most of the
club formations come from a good place, so we easily get enthusiastic about giving it a go, but I want us to
be more contemplative about the implications of all the productivity it does. That go mindset can let things
slip through the cracks, so we need more patience.

Student mental health

● Mr. Tellez: ​From an admin perspective, it’s a huge concern of ours. Especially with the virtual environment
the pressure of school can take a huge toll. The other admins and I actually talked about this earlier this
week, we want to make sure teachers understand all this and take it into consideration. Don’t think your
input falls on deaf ears. We need to know what the student body thinks and feels. We can’t get rid of stress
at PVA, but we want to mitigate the really heavy pressure, and that will be an ongoing process.
● Josh​: Yes, and also the asynchronous time is not being incorporated by all classes right now. It means a
lot but it’s not always there for students.
● Mr. Tellez: ​We’re working on determining the mixed online/in-person schedule.

In person/online school SAT question

● Jaylenn​: If you pick the stay at home option, will you be able to take the school-provided SAT?
● Mr. Tellez:​ We’re not sure if that date would happen and are still figuring out. It would make sense for
students who opted to stay virtual to be able to go take that SAT, but we need to figure that out with the
counselors
Rainbow schedule & more on mental/physical health during virtual school
● Elise​: It’s not ideal because teachers add a lot of workload on the Friday, like putting the quiz on Friday
instead of having a whole weekend. We also don’t have a break to stretch our legs or not be starting at the
screen.
● Tellez​: We don’t know for sure yet but we will probably go back to red/gray block schedule.
● Another student: What I do like about rainbow days is the class starts later and you have more time to
sleep or work in the morning. For example with visual art, the scheduling has led to a big increase in the
assignments.
● Tellez​: We’re working on art areas about the required minimum 2 grades and about what they can be.
We’ve been talking to them to try to ensure that due dates are more spread out instead of being all on the
same day.
● Violet​: A lot of the work we receive is work up until the last 10 minutes, and there’s so much work crammed
into class time and then immediately after school, especially for us seniors. You sit down in the morning
and are at your computer for the entire day except for meals.
● Elena: ​I wanted to add on that it’s not just mental health but there’s very real physical consequences for
students right now. Because of not just lack of sleep but also being on the computer all day, many of us are
getting really bad vision problems, headaches and migraines that last for days, hand or finger cramps from
all the typing and nausea/stomachaches. For solutions/tips/tricks/cures we talk a lot amongst ourselves
about doing things like getting blue light glasses or changing screens to night shift or walking outside, but
there’s also sometimes misinformation out there. We don’t really have any adults other than potentially
those in our household telling us what could work. It would be great if the admins, nurse, or counselors
could put out something recognizing the negative physical symptoms students may be experiencing that
way people realize it’s not just them, and also give tips on helping combat those problems that actually
work or are medically backed. And then of course mental health tips also, because mental and physical
health are so intertwined, especially right now.

Student-wide assembly
● Elena​: We’ve brought this up in diversity/culture meetings before but I wanted to bring it up here because a
lot of students would really love PVA to have it...We should have an educational assembly with guest
speakers about diversity and racist, for example telling people what microaggressions are, what slurs are,
talk about what’s not okay to say or do concerning different minority groups. Educate about terminology
and background, and how we can all be allies to each other and create a better environment. We have
 assemblies on school shootings and bullying but not anything on racism....it’s not political, it’s social and
human rights that are important for students to know about.
● Tellez: ​Yes, we had a meeting about that already because of those suggestions and are working on having
a school-wide talk, although we have to figure out the logistics of virtual or in-person and looking into guest
speakers.

Diversity training for teachers

● Mr. Tellez:​ I also wanted to let you know that teachers are going to go through diversity training and make
sure they’re educated, that’s going to be part of the work day on Monday for example.