Santa Barbara Teen Star Naomi Jane Voigt, Chloe Voigt, founder of YouthClusive and Kian Strenn, San Marcos High School ASB President, open up about their views on the Santa Barbara Unified School District attempt to cut teacher positions instead of administration. The three talk about the epic 8-hour meeting that ended about 3 a.m. and how they felt disrespected and unheard by some board members, especially board member Bill Banning. Naomi Jane talks about feeling "silenced and diminished by an older man on the board." "In that moment, us students, at least I felt my power in that moment was taken away. My voice got taken away. My passion got taken away. I felt squashed."

Chloe said, "I am just offended by the fact that their job is to listen to us and make school a better place for us, but they don't want to listen to us."

Kian adds: "It seems that they just lost perspective on what it is that really matters at schools, which is clearly the students. The biggest impact on students is what you do with the teachers. It's not the administration. It's not the people at the district level. It's the teachers.

Check out this podcast to hear all their views on the proposed cuts, the mood among students, and where things are headed. Chloe also shares about her YouthClusive arts and theater program that she started at 13 years old. Naomi Jane talks about her experience winning Santa Barbara Teen Star and how she is using that platform to speak out for all students in Santa Barbara and beyond.

Joshua Molina is an award-winning journalist, podcaster, and college instructor who creates compelling conversation on issues of housing, education, politics, business and culture. Please subscribe to this podcast and follow Josh on IG at motownjoshnews. Please consider a financial contribution to support Molina's podcast series at SantaBarbaraTalks.com SBT is an LLC founded by Joshua Molina.