Kalen Lipka

It’s important to make sure students know what’s happening in their community, so teacher Scott Nehmer makes sure to include it in his curriculum!

St. Louis Public Schools has had a long history of successful graduates. In fact, this district’s slogan is “The St. Louis Public School District exists to prepare career and college ready graduates.” But oftentimes, schools forget to educate their students on their civic duties in modern society. Thankfully St. Louis is a shining exception to this precedent. St. Louis High School specifically prepares its students for the real world through its excellent Civics/Economics curriculum taught by Scott Nehmer. 

This course is a one year, two-semester class that every student needs to take and pass in order to graduate. But that’s not unique compared to any other class though. What sets this class apart from the rest, is that it requires students to go above and beyond by having them attend one St. Louis School Board meeting, and also one Town Hall meeting during the year. 

While the students are at the meeting(s) they must list topics discussed, write a paragraph detailing the one they find the most interesting, as well as acquire a signature of a respective board member to prove that the student actually attended. Doing so allows students to learn that politics and other related civic happenings are much more simple than they’ve been led to believe. 

Mr. Nehmer said, “ I think it’s an awesome way to get some civic engagement from students, and maybe get some of them to actively participate.”

 When Mr Nehmer was in high school, he was asked by his school to attend civic meetings like current SLHS students do, he shared his experiences with, “When I was in high school, I kind of had to do something similar. It was a little different from what St. Louis asks of their students, but I was required to attend one day in court and one town hall meeting.” 

However, attending only two meetings a year may not be enough to properly educate students about civic happenings. Mr. Nehmer agreed, and stated, “I’d love to see my students get more excited and involved in those kinds of meetings, but unfortunately most (students) just attend them for the grade.” 

Just watching these meetings leaves some students unsatisfied. Some of the students want to actually participate in these meetings. The best way students of SLHS can get involved is by running for election on Student Council. This is because the Student Council holds its own meetings multiple times a month. The Student Council also typically sends one representative to the monthly school board meetings. This responsibility is normally left to the Student Council president, Rachel Jewell, who said, “The reports from Student Council are just meant to inform the board of what is happening. We try to tell them everything that is happening, but in a shortened version, focusing on the important things that are happening (in the school).”