GUELPH – The two new student trustees at the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) presented their first report during a Sept. 23 meeting.
Erin District High School Grade 11 student Elisa Emini introduced herself, explaining that she represents rural UGDSB schools in Fergus, Palmerston, Erin, Mount Forest and Shelburne.
Grade 12 Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute student Wreighn Fetalcorin represents the urban schools in Guelph and Orangeville.
Emini and Fetalcorin’s first event as student trustees was a system leaders meeting on Orangeville on Aug. 20, where they heard about the board’s multi-year plan, key goals and human rights implementation and review.
The first student senate meeting of the 2025-26 school year took place on Sept. 15, and included a presentation from education director Peter Sovran about the multi-year plan, achievement and attendance goals, and the role of the student senate – “the eyes and ears within our schools and classrooms,”
their report states.
Board chair Ralf Mesenbrink shared a brief history of Ontario’s school boards with the student senate and explained the framework provided by the Education Act.
There was also a presentation from mental health and addiction supervisor Wendy Fernandez, who offered advice to the student senate about maintaining mental wellness. Fernandez will attend each monthly student senate meeting with mental health tips.
Former student trustee Nathalie Alaves shared a presentation to the senate called “Finding Your Path,” during which she shared her own story to highlight how pathways are not always linear “and learning to let go of what you cannot control helps with understanding that it’s a journey, not necessarily a destination.”
The student senators then each shared what went well in their schools during the first two weeks, and what could have gone better.
“Things that went well included guidance working very hard to ensure students were able to make course changes; very hectic during the first week but settled now,” the report states.
“The start up of school sports and clubs is going fairly well but some schools need to do a better promotion of clubs available to students such as a bulletin board with everything listed.”
According to the student trustees, the impact of a technology spending pause implemented last year to cut costs is “really being felt,” as there are not as many Chromebooks available as needed.
“Some schools don’t have enough paper textbooks so students are forced to use digital textbooks or share textbooks/Chromebooks, so you can’t always take it home to do work,” the report states.
“Students also reported that bus transportation has generated lots of complaints about very early pickups, late arrivals, confusion about routes, and the amount of time required to be on a bus.”
The student senators requested more information about the technology spending pause and bus transportation, “as both have a significant impact on students.”
