The school’s Site Council’s spending decisions affect the student body more than one may know. The Site Council consists of a dozen people, including Principal Ginter, teacher, student, parent, and classified representatives, who make decisions over how to spend money allotted to them by SJUSD.

“One of the main points of Site Council is oversight by the community,” Classified Representative Tom Nelson said. “It’s oversight that the school is being run well and is following the plan and priorities that the school community determines as being important, so from the administration and district point of view, it’s important that the stakeholders in Site Council feel like they’re getting answers and are a part of the operation of the school.

It takes a village. A well raised child is raised by the community. A well run school is run by the community. The best run schools are schools in which the entire community feels involved.”

“I joined Site Council because I saw that the money that was being spent the last year and previous years could have been more efficiently spent,” senior Site Council Chairman David Egan said. “Maybe if they were given more information about what they were buying, they’d say ‘no.’ I wanted to have a say in the school and how they’d spend the money.”

Egan was elected to Site Council by the student representatives and became the chairman. The council has spent money on computers, textbooks, supplies, travel, printing, and postage.

On Monday’s Site Council meeting, Principal Ginter discussed the fact that Toshiba started a new lease contract with the school for three years.

Classified Representative Tom Nelson brought up how the school would spend money raised as a result of the Measure N bond that passed in the November elections.

“We’re supposed to be contacted by the district at each site to discuss the priorities of each site,” Ginter said.

“That’s supposed to happen in February. The district will make ultimate decisions on what will be funded.”

“It’s kind of like schools are bidding for it,” Nelson added, prompting laughter from the room.

The council also discussed having a Family Resource Center on campus

“The idea for a Family Resource Center is that it would be a place for students to come and get help on homework, have access to a computer, and do those in a more dedicated environment,” Egan said.

“After school tutoring is only an hour a day. This would be a place to go for students to get a lot of stuff done.”

The proposed Family Resource Center would have a computer lab open to students who didn’t have access to a computer at home.

Sophomore Student Representative Sun Ho Hwang brought up a common student concern of getting undesirable courses, as well as cigarette butts on campus and the bathroom running out of toilet paper too often.

“With the new semester, many kids were getting angry at their schedules,” Hwang said. “They’re getting classes they don’t want, P.E. for example for students who’ve already taken two years of it. I see it as something that needs to be fixed, but unfortunately I don’t have an alternative to things.”

Site Council meetings are open to the public.

For the rest of the year, they have $48,605.24 total that they have a say in spending, though the money they spend is limited to certain categories.