According to school board president Layla Spanenberg, the school board plans to officially adopt the 2015-2016 legislative priorities on Sept. 28 during their regular board meeting at 7 p.m. Board meetings are held 7 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month (excluding May and December) and are open to the public and media.

“In previous years, Carmel Clay Schools have had legislative priorities, and we have set forth and worked with those and have had a number of conversations with all of our legislators, either those that directly represent Carmel Clay Schools system or those that serve on the Ways and Means committee or various committees that really impact some of the decisions that are going to happen,” Spanenberg said.

The school board will adopt altered legislative priorities because Spanenberg said the state “imposes a number of rules and regulations that impact us when they have very little information on how it’s going to impact us, and so we’re trying to be sure that we educate them on the impact of some of those decisions.”

Spanenberg said the ultimate goal is to advocate for the students.

“Not all of the priorities that the legislators impose advocate for students,” Spanenberg said. “We are trying to educate them as to the impact of some of those rules and regulations, so the priorities that we have set forth, they’re basically how we are advocating for our school district and for public education across the state of Indiana. Because there are some global concepts that negatively impact every student.”

The 2015-2016 legislative priorities have not been published yet, but they will be adopted at the Sept. 28 board meeting. During board meetings, a specific time slot is allotted for the board to discuss and vote upon an issue.

Donnesha Robinson, senior class president and member of the Principal’s Advisory Council (PAC), said this structure resembles that of the PAC.

“The student body president writes up the agenda with whatever proposals we all have to give, and during the meeting we discuss them and determine which we can actually implement and which we have to reject or save for a different time,” Robinson said.