Anthony Cruz starts stint as student liaison

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The Aug. 28 Valley Stream Central High School District Board of Education meeting served as Central High School senior Anthony Cruz’s debut as the board’s student liaison.

“I think I was a bit nervous, but I think it was a really good opportunity to see how board meetings work, and finding out what my chance to participate would be,” Cruz said about his experience.

As the board’s student liaison, Cruz said he would like to increase communication between the board and the students it serves. He said that he was in favor of the board’s decision to hire a new director of security (see story, Page 7) and said he would like to make the students aware of that.

He previously said that students in the district were unhappy with school security. “Right now, many students in Valley Stream and the country feel frustrated with the way things are and don’t know how to transfer that passion into something that can be of benefit to themselves and to the community,” Cruz told the Herald in July. “But with a small action, like having a student on the board, it’s one more step toward young people having a bigger voice in what goes on.”

Cruz presented the idea for a student liaison in January, after which members of the policy committee looked at applicable laws and other district’s policies before adopting the proposal on June 12. Under that policy, the student representative would be a senior in good academic standing and would be chosen by members of the high school’s student council and 12th-grade council. The student liaison would be a nonvoting position and would alternate each year between the district’s three high schools.

“I think it is a great thing,” said President John Maier. “Hopefully he will be able to bring the students’ aspect to the board by letting us know what the students are thinking and feeling about different things.”

Cruz also said that he was happy that the board approved his proposal. “It means to me that … if something is presented to the board and it’s something that would positively affect the school or the district, it would be done in time,” he said.