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To govern the second largest district in the nation—making decisions that impact the educational lives of over 640,000 students—LAUSD is separated into districts, and those districts are led by board members. Each is supplemented by a recently re-implemented student advisory council. Encompassing the core parts of northeast and northwest Los Angeles, including LACES, is District 1. Elected District 1 Board Councilmember in 2024, Sherlett Hendy Newbill took the initiative to bring back the previously dormant Student Advisory Council—signaling a renewed commitment to student voice in district decision making.
“They [the Board] wanted to bring it back because they really enjoyed having students share their opinions and having a source of hearing back,” said Student Advisory Council member Elysse Avila, a LACES junior. “Because—we are the students. Everything the district does, it affects us.”
Six members of LAUSD’s Student Advisory Council consist of LACES students. These students include Elysse Avila, Griffin Brown, Sanai Khalil, Isadora Arah, Catie Orr and Mia Braufman. [Editor’s Note: Orr and Braufman are both part of the LACES Untied editorial staff.] Each of these members serve as a voice for LACES, carrying out their responsibilities by casting around for issues based on both personal experience from their time as students and by peer outreach—whether it be by interviewing people on campus or through Schoology surveys for information. Their goal: making a difference in schools where information would otherwise not be accessible to the district without the student council, with no one to oversee the specifics of complications on the many campuses.
“Just using LACES as a stand in, it’s a pretty big school, and big schools like this can’t necessarily do things all at once—we just intend to kind of act as a voice for issues that need to be addressed and that students don’t really feel are,” said LACES junior and Student Advisory Council member Griffin Brown.
While the council typically tackles broader student concerns, Brown emphasizes that to him, it is often the most overlooked issues that reveal the greatest need for change.
“. . . It was just kind of seeing the tiny or very easy-to-make improvements that can be made, but just aren’t,” said Brown. “For example, whether it’s more of greater access to after-school tutoring or access college resources, more access to even just basic needs like the restroom, stuff that can be delegated towards or can be noticed but often goes unnoticed—I’d like to imagine the school as kind of a whiteboard, and in the corner of the whiteboard there’s just a bunch of dust gathering. You don’t care about the metal sheets and parts, you care about the dust gathering, those tiny little bits and issues that could very easily be solved but aren’t given much attention, and could spiral into something worse.”
Among the most pressing concerns being brought to attention to the district by the LACES students of the Advisory Council are in regards to mental health resources and the limited restroom access.
“The specific changes that I brought to attention and that other kids, to their credit, have brought to the board’s attention are, for the most part, mental health resources and restroom access,” said Brown.
There are numerous issues regarding the LACES restrooms—one of them being their constant unavailability .
Avila adds on, “The majority of the bathrooms are either locked, out of use. . . I mean, the green building upstairs has been saying ‘out-of-service’ for a few months now, which is insane–so, obviously the bathrooms. ”
Not only are many of the LACES bathrooms constantly closed or out-of-service, but there is a great cleanliness issue that factors into the bathrooms that are in service as well that the board is looking over.
“We did send out a survey a while back addressing the issues that people might hear or notice and asking people about their opinions, but the ones that caught my attention the most were that a lot of LACES students decided the amount of trash there is at LACES is an issue—main one was the bathrooms—which I totally agree,” said Avila.
With a council composed entirely of students that see these identify these issues in their day-to-day, their impact is anything but small. In fact, before the past council went inactive, they made significant changes that are still implemented at LACES today.
“Those period and tampon products in the bathrooms—Board District 1, the student advisory council, actually made the decision for everyone to have that a while back,” said Avila.
Tackling both the overlooked details and the larger, systemic concerns, LAUSD’s Board District 1 Student Advisory Council this year is continuing to turn student voice into district action. From mental health resources to sanitary supplies to open restroom doors, these victories by the District 1 students of the council mark the start of a lasting student presence in district decision-making one suggestion, one survey at a time.