DGS administration says they “missed the target” and apologized after miscommunications about a school safety forum on March 19 resulted in students voicing their concerns at a board meeting.

In an email sent out Wednesday afternoon to students who attended the forum, administration said they were working together to figure out the next steps in addressing student feedback.

“Quite frankly, our enthusiasm for making this happen in an extremely short period of time caused us to plan an event that fell short of expectations,” the email said. “The student representatives did a great job of sharing their information, but the format that we established did not work. The idea was good. The execution was not.”

Students have mixed reactions to the apology. Junior Ailyn Trejo said she believes that if it weren’t for students expressing their disappointment, such an email wouldn’t have been sent out.

“I think they just sent [the email] out because of what everyone was saying about [the forum],” Trejo said.

Sophomore Kate Stanley sees the email as a step in the right direction for the school and students fighting for a change.

“It shows how we are trying to move forward as a school, and even though people say this might not change anything, but we are pushing for some sort of change,” Stanley said.

During the board meeting on March 19, Dr. Hank Thiele asked Principal Ed Schwartz to meet with his team to resolve student concerns.

“I already scheduled a meeting, and I met with several of these kids today,” Schwartz said in response to Thiele during the meeting.

As Schwartz said, the team responsible for the planning of the forum met the next day to address what they could do to improve. The email explained that the team would be considering student suggestions submitted via the Google Form during the forum.

Senior Jackson Kamedulski was an organizer for the walkout. He was disappointed by the lack of discussion during the forum and that he and two other organizers were not asked to participate in the panel.

“I hope [administration] holds another forum, and I hope that it’s much more like a discussion and more student-lead instead of administration-lead. I think that’s a good way to fix what [administrators] have done,” Kamedulski said.

Administration plans to inform students of further steps once they return from spring break. Activities Director Jennifer Martinez was one of the administrators responsible for planning the forum.

“We want to continue to collect some feedback from students to implement something that will meet everyone’s needs. What that looks like? We have had a lot of discussion and brainstorming, but we’re not at a point where we have something solid that we can share with [students],” Martinez said.

Martinez added that the best way for students to express what they want from the administration is to meet with them directly or contact them via email.