CC Minutes - 02/24/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Quindlen said students needed to say yes to going back to school, rebuilding their lives, working, living for tomorrow instead of for today, and getting off the streets. New Roads students were interested in fixing the problems of youth today, wanted to finish their education, and wanted to change and rebuild their lives. He said that New Roads students were trying to get back on their feet, and that opportunity was provided by the school. He thanked the council for inviting the youth leaders to speak and share their concerns about issues affecting students. Alex Habliston, North Eugene High School, said that the major concerns among students at his high school were class overcrowding and a shortage of teachers. He said that increased funding would help relieve that problem. Mr. Habliston said that students were also concerned about new housing developments in the River Road area as more students would be added to the schools and they would not receive the education they deserved. Students believed the City Council should apply stricter regulations on developers of such developments by mandating larger yards and more space between the houses, or by adding more money to the school for more teachers. He thanked the council for the opportunity to speak. Marshall Clement of South Eugene High School thanked the council for listening to the voice of youth. He discussed his work with Youth Voice, an organization he had founded to get the voices of youth into the community. Mr. Clements believed youth needed more involvement in the decision-making process. He said that Youth Voice was interested in working with the mayor to form a committee of the youth leaders that would meet periodically with the City Council to discuss the issues that were under consideration by the council to provide a youth perspective on those issues. He offered to help coordinate that effort. Mr. Clement said that Youth Voice employs surveys and forums of youth to find out what issues are of concern to students. Youth Voice was planning a forum on the environment with the intention of bringing youth togther to develop legislative proposals to address environmental problems. Youth Voice was also holding a leadership seminar for freshmen and sophomores to give them the skills needed to make their voices heard in the community. He hoped that those youth would be able to participate in implementing the mayor's youth agenda. Mr. Clements identified large class sizes as a major problem. He said that the average class size in his school was 37 people, and it had required people to drop out of his Spanish class for students to receive individual attention from the teacher. He said that Portland subsidizes local schools to some degree and asked the City Council to consider looking into that issue. Angela Martin, Sheldon High School, thanked the council for its interest in what youth had to say. She said she was a senior involved in the International High School program. She had talked to students of many ages and backgrounds to find out what they wanted the council to hear. The biggest concern mentioned to her regarded class size. She noted that there were too few desks for the number of students enrolled in three out of four of her classes. Ms. Martin said students that need personal attention were not receiving it, and those who excelled did not receive further encouragement because they were not perceived as needing extra assistance. She said that violence in the school was another concern to students, particularly in light of the homecoming incident at Sheldon some months previous. Ms. Martin suggested that programs, including recreational programs, were needed to address the issue of violence. Courtney Bowman and Tori Luke of Churchill High School thanked the council for inviting them to speak. Ms. Bowman said that an issue that affected many teens at many schools was teen pregnancy. They had been thinking of ways to stop such pregnancies before they happened. Ms. Luke cited statistics regarding teen age pregnancy in the United States and said it was an MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 4 11:30 a.m.