Governing Committees

Nova High School is a centered around community, and that philosophy can be seen everywhere throughout the school, including in how the school is run. Nova is a democratically run school, meaning that students have equal say to staff and teachers about major decisions regarding the school. Students participate in the running of the school through Governing Committees.

Each governing committee is made up of a group of students, teachers, parents, guardians, alumni, principal, and staff, and work to democratically make decisions and serve the school in various ways. Matters such as hiring and review, budget, and recruitment are addressed by the entire community, and everyone has a voice and vote on the issues.

Below is a list of all of the governing committees at Nova, and descriptions of what they do for the school. Some governing committees are new due to remote schooling, and some aren’t currently up and running for the same reason. Regardless, enjoy exploring all the ways that students can get involved in the running of Nova High School!

Action Faction

Action Faction works on Nova’s social justice goals and aspirations. We also work on getting resources to students such as clothing, non perishable food, condoms, menstrual products, gender affirming products and further educational references and ways to access BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse history and culture. We discuss ways to continue to improve class focus on marginalized communities and ensure our ethnic studies classes remain mandatory and at the coor of Nova’s educational focus. We focus on student made plans and then put in the time and energy to make them a reality.

Mothership

Mothership is a space for students to participate in the governing body. Students will engage in civic participation and discussion. Students will represent their coors and the things that students want to see more or less at Nova. We listen to student voices and then make actionable plans based on that feedback.

POC Committee

This governing committee, the People of Color Committee (POCC), is a meeting place for students and staff who identify as people of color. We meet to build community and hold space for POC students and staff to reconnect with each other, develop and grow our leadership skills, and discuss issues of race and equity in a safe and open environment.

Past projects have included our organizing of coat & warm clothing drives in the winter, field trips, pot-lucks, host movie nights, collaborating with local organizations, and program teaching events for the school. Additionally, students rotate facilitation duties of weekly committee meetings & short- and long-term projects.

On Tuesdays we are especially focused on citizenship teaching and learning (e.g. POCC is one of several governing committees which give input to our administrators for Nova’s Mission/Vision C-SIP School Improvement Plan (an official document generated annually by Nova’s administrators that sets goals, enrichment, instructions programs, students’ achievement, and assessment of the school, and is published on our school’s SPS website).

Wellness Steering Committee

The wellness committee will be meeting regularly with the folks running the new Nova Wellness Center to help build, improve and expand their services for Nova students and the community. We have already helped architects design the temporary space but will continue to advise for the permanent space. We have helped hire staff for the space but will also give feedback and support their understanding of Nova and our amazingly diverse students. We agreed to help them get student art and interesting pieces to decorate the space so we need folks who are willing to make or curate art. We will also be working on grant writing to get more services and expand the possibilities of what the wellness center can offer.

Guild

Guild hosts the all-school, social events at Nova. We are focusing on online events now but in general we host, plan and fundraise for dances and other in-person events for the whole school. Nova always has fun, creative & unique prom themes, but that is just one of the many events that are hosted by Guild. We also host events like Karaoke, Artshares, and the new Café Supernova, a weekly online social space for games, art and more!

Yearbook

We, as the yearbook committee, quite literally put together the annual yearbook at Nova. In all seriousness though, we are in charge of gathering photographs, stories, memories, community projects etc to include in the book. We try to incapacitate all of the meaningful moments over the year and also just the fun projects and experiences that people have had because all of those small enjoyable interactions are what makes Nova so unique and inspiring.

Budget

All things to do with money and funding at Nova. We organize all of the resources and things Nova needs, then calculate how much they will cost. At Nova the students are in charge of how and when we spend money based on what the Nova community needs.

Recruitment

Nova's Recruitment Committee works to recruit new students to the school. We work to market Nova to incoming eighth graders and transfer students, and try to share with them how amazing Nova is.

Recruitment Committee runs student orientations, tours, and shadowing, and work on projects (like this website!!) to share the Nova community and education with prospective families.

Recruitment Committee also works to help maintain the current student body by offering spaces and supports for new students to the school, to help them adjust to Nova.

Safety

We discuss education around sex, drugs and growing up. Ways to be whole and keep our bodies and minds healthy. We work to educate the community on things they may have missed at previous schools. We also teach what to do in the event of someone overdosing, someone passing out, how to give CPR, what hotlines are available, and what resources there are for students struggling with addiction, abuse or harassment.

Walk the Planet Nova Farm

In pre-pandemic times, the Walk the Walk and Planet Nova committees took on many tasks to improve the Nova school building and its surrounding neighborhood, especially regarding environmental justice/responsibility/sustainability. Meanwhile, the Nova Farm class tended to Nova’s garden area as students learned horticultural skills. Walk the Planet Nova Farm will attempt to combine as many of these efforts as we can. Let’s discuss and take steps to improve our local communities, including through gardening, litter pick-up, and other steps we come up with together. This will also be a place for us to build community as we navigate this remote school year.

Hiring and Review

We are incharge of the hiring process of teachers and staff and creating criteria of what we need in our staff. We accept resumes and set up interviews. Now we conduct them via zoom, but before covid you would host them in person.

Planet Nova

Planet Nova is a fun, inclusive way for students to learn how to help with climate change. Since the climate crisis is looming on us all, Planet Nova is ever more important. In normal times, we would start the year by brainstorming ways to help our school be as nature friendly as possible. We put up bird feeders, distribute plants to the teachers to keep in their classrooms, take out the compost, and talk about protests and things that are happening worldwide. Then individual students would pick what they want to work on throughout the semester. One of our bigger projects a student was working on last year was to try to get solar panels for the building. We can do big things! We were also trying to organize a beach clean up somewhere in the Seattle area. Every week students have a project to work on. Examples include taking out the compost, refilling bird feeders, writing up articles about the climate crisis and what we can do to help, or simply watering/re-potting plants. Planet Nova is a community where climate conscious students can support each other and work to change the world!

All School Events Planning

We will organize and/or support the school day events like Fall Conference, Winter Conference, Consent Day, Racial Justice Conferences, Black Lives Matter in Schools Week, All School Meetings with interesting presenters and artists, and more! We will work directly with lots of other committees to make this happen, but we will be the folks who do the organizing work, along with collecting and using community feedback and building our community contacts.

Sound

We run all the tech and behind-the-scenes setups for Nova events. We also maintain the music room and all the equipment.

Poster Brigade

We ensure that Nova is an inspiring and creative place by making art and banners for the Nova building. We also help rearrange layouts at Nova and community spaces. Poster Brigade also distributes art supplies to the Nova community.