Schools Candidate Says Board Should Seek Student Voice

By Janese Heavin, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

Mar. 30–One candidate for the Columbia Board of Education thinks the school district should add a nonvoting student member to the board, but other candidates aren’t so sure.

Candidate Michael Tan pitched the idea during a candidate forum earlier this week. He later told the Tribune he got the idea from reading about other districts that have student representatives on the board.

“Most of them have reported good results with student input,” Tan said. “We could use kids who are in touch with what’s going on in school.”

The Rolla School District was the first in Missouri to add a student member to the school board, and a handful of other districts have followed suit, said Brent Ghan, chief communications officer for the Missouri School Boards Association.

“Some boards feel like that is an effective way to get student input on issues,” Ghan said. “It’s not a huge trend, but it’s an idea that more and more boards are considering.”

The current Columbia school board has not discussed the idea of appointing a student member, board President Chuck Headley said.

Candidates Michelle Gadbois and Steve Calloway have some reservations about allowing a student to join the board.

Calloway said he would be concerned about asking a high school student to attend the monthly board meetings, which sometimes last past 10 o’clock on Monday nights.

“There’s no question we need feedback from students,” he said. “There are a number of committees in the district that don’t have student representatives.”

Students could offer their opinions by serving on committees studying such things as the achievement gap and long-range facility planning, along with other think-tank groups, he said.

“That’s where the bigger payoff would be,” Calloway said. “It’s a nice gesture, appointing nonvoting members to the board, but I think their energies would be wasted there.”

Gadbois said she is OK with the idea of giving students a voice but wants teachers to be heard as well. “I think it would be a disadvantage to skip over teachers who have asked to have a position on the board and to have some kind of liaison,” she said.

Gadbois said she supports the concept of having a teacher-elected liaison for every school in the district — an idea Rock Bridge High School teachers proposed to the school board in January.

“What the Rock Bridge teachers have suggested is a fantastic idea,” Gadbois said.

By state law, employees of a school district cannot serve as voting members on the board of education. “But there’s nothing to prevent a board from appointing a teacher or anyone else in an advisory capacity,” the school board association’s Ghan said. “We do know of districts that have student representatives, but we don’t know of any cases of teachers who have actually been appointed to such positions.”

Tan said he would be open to having teacher liaisons as well.

“That would be a great idea, even though teachers have the opportunity to attend school board meetings and participate in public comment,” he said. “To have input on all levels would help the board know what’s happening and be aware of the needs.”

Before the board would consider appointing any teacher or student member, Gadbois said, she would like to research what other schools are doing.

In Rolla, a committee made up of high school faculty members appoints the student representative, district Superintendent Terry Adams said. The student begins a term in the middle of his or her junior year, then continues through the first semester as a senior. The student board member does not have voting power and is not allowed to attend closed sessions.

Adams said having a student voice has been advantageous. “The board actively and frequently asks him for a student’s view.”

Candidates Elton Fay and Arch Brooks were not available for comment.

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