Shelton board of education looks to add ‘student voice’ to meetings
SHELTON — The Board of Education wants to hear from students.
At its Feb. 24 meeting, the board revised a policy that would allow for two high school students — one upperclassman and one underclassman — to attend the Board of Education regular meetings.
“As it is a common practice in many school systems, I believe it is important that Shelton has a student voice involved at the Board of Education meetings,” Superintendent Ken Saranich said. “These student representatives will be selected by their peers to provide our board a better understanding of what is happening in our schools from a student’s perspective.”
The board voted 8-0, with board member Diana Meyer abstaining, to approve the new policy.
“As the board policy requires a policy to sit until the next board meeting, not specifically 30 days, it may be possible for our student reps to be present at the March meeting,” Saranich said.
Meyer abstained after stating she was “disappointed” the students could not be guaranteed to be able to attend the March regular meeting. She said that students, many of who had requested about a year ago to have a voice at board meetings, should not have to wait any longer.
“Although there was some language cleanup,” Yolish said, “administrative regs will be developed and implemented ASAP so that the process of selecting the student candidates will begin.
Yolish said she hopes student representatives will be in attendance as soon as the next board meeting in March or by the April board meeting.
“The process was extremely long, partially due to the pandemic, but it is now a reality,” Yolish said.
The SHS Students Fight for Change Group called for a non-voting student representative on the board in April. The group stated that it believes “representation and student involvement will greatly benefit future decisions that the BOE makes.
“Previous discussion has given us reason to ask for the addition of a representative for the 2020-21 school year,” the group stated in its 2020 platform published last year. “We ask that this candidate be democratically elected by the student body, after going through an application process, which makes certain they are qualified for such a position.”