The past few week the JSEC Civics class has been incredibly busy advocating for change within the school department then in a cumulative project of travelling to the RI State House General Assembly chambers to have their voices heard.  Ms. Burdick’s Civics class represented JSEC proud @ the Rhode Island Civics Day event at the State House. JSEC placed first in the state at this event.    JSEC stakeholders should be proud of all they have accomplished and refreshing to see that change can take place.

“The JSEC Civics classes advocated for more mental health support and after school programs at their school.  The project was student choice and was presented on Civics Day Friday May 27^th at the State House.  Students had various tasks including, but not limited to article research, community member outreach, legislative outreach, and community surveys.  With the information from this research they were able to give clear and accurate data to support their requests.”-Mrs. Burdick

A precursor to this event was held on  May 18th, where 7 students from JSEC from Mrs. Burdicks P1 & P2 classes, trekked to the Providence School Department.  Students arrived at 5:45PM to participate in a Providence School Board Meeting which was to  begin at 6:30PM.  Members of the school board sat in in section while others sat in another section all facing each other.  There were microphones for all school board members and a table set up with 2 microphones for audience members.   Of the school board members was Ty’relle Stephens, who recently graduated from JSEC, who has a love for not only JSEC but also for the students of Providence Schools.    Another tie to JSEC is the Superintendent himself, Dr. Montanez, whose 2 sons attended JSEC in the past and both graduated from here.

The purpose of JSEC attending this meeting was to address issus facing many of today’s Providence Teens.  There were many issues brought up at the meeting but the 2 main areas JSEC students wanted to address was:

*Bringing back more before and after school programs

*Mental health programming and the need for more social workers in each school

Overall JSEC representatives felt that more programs were needed across Providence to engage students in programs to keep students busy in a fun, robust, & enriching way.  Currently there are only 6, yes 6 after school programs running at JSEC and also has one pretty successful before school program running.  There is a need for more programming and students felt if more were offered more would attend and that in turn would keep students in a positive and safe environment.

Regarding mental health programming and social workers, currently we have a certified social worker at JSEC 2 days a week.  Last year the social worker was at JSEC 5 days a week which made services readily available.  It seems like with the reduction in social workers that many mental health issues are either escalating and/or not being properly addressed.

The students who attended shared that the Providence School Board Meeting.  The Providence School Board took public comment and took information in, took notes, asked clarifying questions, and seemed to be share the concerns we brought up.

It was getting late so JSEC students left the meeting about 8PM.  Due to our concerns and because one of the school board members was scheduled to present about City Year at JSEC anyway, but one of the school board members Ty’relle Stephens, will be coming to JSEC today, May 25th, to meet with students and will be opening to floor for more voices to be heard and to address many of the concerns of JSEC students.

This past Friday, 5/27/22, the following students went to the state house to compete in a competition related to a civics project.  JSEC took first place in the competition.  Students who participated were: Luis Mario-Garcia Ashanti Gonzalez Antonia Mitogo Jennifer Germosen Noah Vazquez Richard Garcia Katharine Ardon Christopher Mercedez Miosotys Valerio Blesses Adeoye Favoured Adeoye Giana Claudio Johnathan Rodriguez.  

JSEC should be proud of this recent accomplishment as they not only spoke about things but they became part of the change they wanted to see.