Students Offer School Boards a Special Perspective

Aaron Israel takes his school board duties seriously, but he also leaves nearly every meeting early.

After all, he’s got homework.

The Corona del Mar High School senior is one of several appointed student representatives on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board. Before he and the other teenage representatives make their exits, usually a couple of hours into the semimonthly sessions, they do their best to make their marks on the meetings with their youthful perspectives.

They tell the elected adult board members about events at schools, including plays, pumpkin pie-eating contests and student petitions on equalizing the number of girls’ and boys’ bathrooms.

But like his counterparts, Aaron doesn’t shy away from serious issues and suggestions for reform. At a recent meeting, he held the boardroom spellbound while describing his involvement in a minor fender-bender during the half-hour lunch period at Corona del Mar High School.

“Limiting lunch to 35 minutes means you have up to 398 juniors and seniors taking their cars out at unsafe speeds in search of decent food,” said Aaron, 17. “I might personally advocate closing the campus.”

Shaking her head in distress, board President Martha Fluor thanked Aaron for bringing up the issue.

“That’s an idea, and so is getting more appetizing meals to keep more students on campus,” she said. “We’re very grateful to you, and very grateful you were not hurt.”

More and more, school boards are bringing on student representatives in some capacity. About 15% of the country’s more than 14,000 school districts have student members, according to the National School Boards Assn. Laws in 31 states permit those students to vote, although rules vary as to the issues on which they may vote and whether their votes count.

California school boards can give their student representatives advisory voting power if they choose, although most -- including Newport-Mesa Unified -- do not. Their votes are considered formal expressions of opinion rather than actions that might determine a final outcome, according to the state Education Code.

“Voting is less of an issue than the opportunity to participate and speak,” said Joe Villani, deputy executive director of the National School Boards Assn. “Very seldom does a single vote determine an issue, but the opportunity to have a student’s point of view when it comes to decision-making is invaluable.”

Student members are able to attend board meetings, with the exception of closed executive sessions like those dealing with student expulsions or union negotiations.

Like many of his counterparts to the north and south, Raymond Gennawey, student representative for Capistrano Unified School District, queries those who come before the board. Sitting on the dais with the adult board members in a well-cut black suit, Raymond formulates his questions after poring through the thick stack of documents on the agenda.

At one recent session, the Aliso Niguel High School senior pressed an assistant superintendent on the practicality of scheduling state-mandated standardized tests on the same days as Advanced Placement exams. Most of his peers pick the AP tests, meaning a school’s results can be skewed if many exams are taking place in the same morning.

“It just doesn’t work,” said Raymond, 17, of Aliso Viejo. “It’s not good for us, and it’s really not good for test scores. Adjusting the schedule would really make life easier for students.”

“This,” Supt. James A. Fleming said, “is why we have student representatives. I don’t think there’s anyone else out there who would have recognized this and told us about it.”

Adding some articulate input on the practicality and reality of board proposals is usually a student representative’s most important role, Villani said.

“For policies on things like discipline, or even walking distance, it’s important to hear from a student what those mean to a kid,” he said. “Student input really helps keep the board members grounded as to what it is that they are about as school board members: student achievement.”

Capistrano, like most California boards, has one representative, usually selected by a campus’ Associated Student Body members.

Others, including Irvine Unified and the Huntington Beach Union High school districts, have a student from each campus.

In the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District, the student body presidents from the district’s 49 high schools rotate through the annual meeting schedule, three appearing at each session to offer their views on issues, said Hilda Ramirez, a district spokeswoman

Newport-Mesa takes it a step further and has alternates for nearly every campus, including two of the district’s alternative schools.

At most campuses, the school’s elected Associated Student Body members appoint a representative, but at a couple of campuses the principal selects the delegates.

Sarah Hughes, a senior at Costa Mesa’s Back Bay High, one of the district’s alternative campuses, serves along with senior Erika Kerr as Newport-Mesa’s first student representatives from that school.

At the most recent meeting, she talked about the creation of a club for female students and campus assemblies on college opportunities, along with the student petition she and Erika circulated on opening more bathrooms for girls.

“Yay!” cheered board Vice President Dana Black. “Future women leaders!”

Aaron, the district’s Corona del Mar delegate, who aspires to be a U.S. senator or a judge, said he had jumped at the opportunity to be one of the links between administrators and the student body.

Active on his campus’ student court and school site council, Aaron has also headed the Newport Beach Youth Council and served as youth liaison to the mayor.

“By bringing up these crucial issues, the board has the opportunity to see our concerns are genuine,” Aaron said after the meeting in which he discussed lunchtime driving.

“They know that we’re prepared to stand up for our beliefs so that future generations will have better opportunities and a safer campus.”

Putting students on the board and gathering their opinions “is not just something the district does for show,” Aaron added. “They take our roles very seriously, as do we.”