How it Works
Through participating in steering committees, students lead a five-phase process with the support of their SPB sponsors and coordinators, school and district leaders, and the community. Students cultivate ideas, develop proposals, and vote to fund improvement projects that build stronger school communities.
The process is typically organized into five key phases:
1: Design the Process – SPB Coordinators and school and district leaders allocate a budget and select SPB Sponsors. These stakeholders set process guidelines, adapt the timeline, and prepare for implementation. SPB Sponsors assemble a steering committee (a team of students and teachers) to guide the rest of the process.
2: Kickoff & Idea Collection - The steering committee learns about the SPB process, decides on their committee's name, and develops process goals, parameters for ideas, and plans to engage the broader student body in each phase of the process. The steering committee shares the SPB budget with the rest of their school and helps fellow students discuss school needs and brainstorm ideas for projects. Sometimes schools collect ideas in large assemblies, during classroom discussions, at tables during lunch, through social media or online surveys, by walking around campus and asking, and/or in other creative ways!
3: Proposal Development - With the support of SPB Sponsors and Coordinators, the steering committee reviews, and sorts ideas collected from their school community, and turns ideas into project proposals through research. This includes prioritizing ideas, researching costs, and creating detailed project proposals. District and school leaders review and approve projects for the final ballot.
4: Campaign, Deliberate & Vote - Steering committees share the final projects with their school. Sometimes students share information about their projects through posters, presentations, assemblies, video ads, social media, and/or in their school newspaper. Students might also practice their deliberation skills by discussing the pros and cons of each final project during town halls, tabling, or in classroom discussions. With support from SPB Sponsors and Coordinators, steering committees conduct a school-wide vote where students decide on which projects to fund. Voting typically occurs during the spring semester. Sometimes schools conduct voting online using Google Forms, in their classrooms, or at a voting center on campus using paper ballots, or any combination of the above.
5: Implementation & Evaluation - Steering committees and SPB Sponsors work with school and district leaders to submit an official requisition for the winning project. The SPB Sponsor and steering committee are responsible for submitting all approved proposal documents to initiate the purchasing process. The order(s) can be tracked at the campus level. Once the order is received, a “work order” must be submitted for immediate implementation. All students and teachers who were involved in the SPB process monitor the implementation of projects, then celebrate and evaluate the process for the next cycle.
Choose your role below for curated resources and action steps. If you are implementing the SPB process in your classroom, at one school, or in an organization, you might find helpful information in both sections of the resource hub.