Even though there won’t be an election this year, the sixth annual Student’s Town Hall that took place March 29 in the auditorium featured all three Wentzville School Board candidates and, for the first time ever, included a live audience who were able to engage in the ongoings of the event.
The three candidates — Shaun Johnson, Bert Schultz, and Kirby Wilson — all attended the event. In accordance with state statute, the district will not hold an election for the three-year Board of Education terms this year because the number of candidates (three) who filed matches the number of positions available (three). They will be sworn into office at the Board of Education’s reorganization meeting on April 21.
The town hall event started with a quick speech from Will Nolan (12) and Emily Nguyen (12), the executive producers of the event. They thanked everyone who came and showed them where to submit questions to the board, one table for student questions, one table for parent/non-student questions. They also gave a brief overview of the history of Town Hall at Liberty.
“It was started in 2021 by a couple of students in the LHS publications program. They were tasked with live streaming football games for Liberty, and then they decided to apply those skills to something bigger than themselves. And so, they chose to put all of their skills and all their effort into making Town Hall, and we’re still continuing to this year,” Nguyen said. “Since then, students have produced and created a town hall event every single year. However, this year is the first year that we’re welcoming a live audience. Also, in that time we have been honored to have been nominated twice for the innovation pacemaker, which is an award for high school journalism by the National Scholastic Press Association.”
This speech was followed by the first set of questions of the night, which were general questions created by the research team, Emily Nguyen (12), Gabriella Young (11), Sophia McCormack (10), Delainey Gastrietch (9), and Yathi Manda (9) that the group had curated through months of research. This included questions like “Next school year, a new schedule will be implemented, introducing weekly early releases. In the face of potential complaints, how will you weigh the value of student voices and monitor feedback for future adjustments to the schedule?” The board members were then given 60 seconds to answer the question from their side.
After these questions, there was a 10-minute intermission. This format continued for the student questions, where students that attended the event got a chance to stand up and ask their questions to the board. After each candidate had spoken, they moved to the next question. Then, it was the parents and non-students turn to ask questions. The candidates answered, and the event moved on to the online questions submitted by viewers watching the livestream. One of the questions asked was, “How do you plan to balance the academic well-being of students with support for their mental and emotional health?”
After this, the candidates were then given 90 seconds to give their closing remarks, and then the night ended with the closing ceremony.
“The night was a success and couldn’t have been done without the amazing team that helped put it together,” Will Nolan (12) said, who along with Nguyen, were the coordinators of the event.
You can view the events live stream here.
