Notes

City students are speaking out — and schools chancellor Richard Carranza is trying to listen.
Carranza has created a new position of “student voice manager” and is hiring someone to collect input from kids on a variety of issues impacting the public schools, from desegregation to disciplinary policies and more.
The listing for the $70,000 job was posted Dec. 19 and has already garnered 350 applications. Education Department officials even say that students will even be involved in the candidate selection.
“From my first day in New York City, I’ve been struck by the passion, intellect, and maturity of our students, and elevating their voice is essential to our success as a system — including our efforts to integrate schools and advance equity now,” Carranza explained.
The new role of student voice manager will strengthen the city’s dialogue and collaboration with student leaders across the city, according to Carranza.
The public school system has been roiled by controversy in recent months over issues including the city’s highly segregated classrooms, the role of police in schools and the unequal distribution of resources.
Student-led groups including Teens Take Charge, IntegrateNYC, the Fair Play Coalition and the Urban Youth Collaborative have made their opinions heard in demonstrations and in the media, but they’ve had limited official input in matters of school policy.
Now Carranza’s trying to increase their role. And students say it’s about time.
“Our voices need to be heard because at the end of the day we’re the ones going through the system,” said Tiffani Torres, 16, junior at Pace High School in Brooklyn and a member of the group Teens Take Charge.
“Decisions about the schools are going to have to be made using our voices,” she added.
Brooklyn College sophomore Julisa Perez, 19, who is a member of IntegrateNYC, said she’s glad students are participating in the conversation on issues including school integration, which her group advocates for.
“We are really excited to see that integration is on the radar and is being discussed,” said Perez, graduated from Brooklyn’s Leon M. Goldstein High School For The Sciences in 2017. “We’re excited to hear more student voices and we’re willing to share ideas with policymakers.”