The Paw Print

By Raina Suri, Staff Writer

This Tuesday, Feb. 4, Principal Shabazz met with a group of students during enrichment as one of the initiatives outlined in her revised contract. The contract renewal spanned mid-December to early January and deliberations took into account, among other things, the feedback that had been shared by students, staff and community members via the forms sent out to each respective group and during the public comment sessions of Local School Council meetings. Read more about the principal’s renewed contract here.

One main concern during the discussion of Principal Shabazz’s contract renewal was the lack of communication between the school administration and the student body and parent population that led to the addition of two addendums to her new contract outlining a forum and community answer program to keep these groups better informed about the goings-on at Payton. This addendum has manifested itself through the Payton Perspectives enrichment, an event that was publicized in emails that allowed students to send in questions in anticipation of the meeting.

On Tuesday, a group of students including sophomore Eliana Baker, a current candidate for the student representative position on the Local School Council, met with Principal Shabazz, Vice Principal Moon-Sarudi and Dr. Johnson to discuss questions and concerns. Topics covered included the overarching question of how to improve student-administration communication, budgetary issues, advisories and testing procedure. The students were also asked to share their views on what they wanted to see from the administration in the future.

“She [Principal Shabazz] definitely answered all the questions that I asked to the best of her ability, Baker said. She also showed us slides and other presentations and sources that we could use to access information, especially on budgets. And the communications overall were pretty open … about our goals for LSC and what we wanted to achieve through the enrichment.”

Payton Perspectives offers a unique opportunity for students to collaborate directly with their principal on solving community issues that has the potential to lead to direct school improvements within the next four years. “While there can be misconceptions and miscommunication, I believe that those issues can only be resolved through direct communication,” said Baker when explaining why she encourages students to attend upcoming Payton Perspectives meetings. There is yet to be any further communication about the next enrichment, but based on the contract, we can expect a similar forum by April at the latest.