JCPS Represented in Next-Generation Student Council

Jefferson County Public Schools will be represented in the Kentucky Department of Education’s Next-Generation Student Council.Commissioner Terry Holliday created the council to give KDE ideas for how to improve the education system. The 11 member council is made up 10th and 11th grade students from across the commonwealth.Council member Natalie Fahrbach is an 11th grade student at JCPS’s Male High School. She brings a diverse perspective to the panel, she said.“I go to a church group with about 20 to, maybe, 30 people each week and there are easily people from nine to ten schools that go there,” she said.The council will meet with Holliday and KDE staff throughout the year to give a student perspective about state education policies. Fahrbach gives an example of what kind of feedback KDE may be looking for; when the state announced canceling the Commonwealth Diploma, which gives accelerated students recognition, some of her peers were upset.“I think it gives a lot of students the opportunity to push themselves to work hard as well as create goals to try to excel in what they do,” she said.Fahrbach said she is provided the resources from school to succeed but she sometimes feels stress.“I feel that there can be, but some of it does involve laziness. But it’s all about mindset and you just have to push yourself to want something,” she said.Success is partly earned by a student’s determination, said Fahrbach.The council will meet with KDE staff in Frankfort and online. The council’s first meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28.