Board of ed brings back student reps
BRIDGEPORT — Months after stripping any mention of student representatives from agendas and bylaws, the city school board is taking steps to restore them as non-voting members.
The Students and Families Committee of the Board of Education recently spent an hour crafting a carefully worded policy that calls for the student bodies at each city
high school to hold elections each September for student representatives.
Top vote-getters would get to attend all meetings of the school board that are open to the public, receive board materials and weigh in on matters presented to the policy-making panel. Election runners-up would serve as alternates.
For the past few years, student reps have been handpicked by high school principals, and most give written reports that board members suspect are not written by them.
“It shouldn’t be happening, but does,” Board Chairman John Weldon said, suggesting some principals, determined to make sure their school is presented in a positive light, tell students what to include in their reports.
When a majority of the board voted in February to completely rewrite board bylaws, student reports were dropped from the slimmed-down agendas.
Board Secretary Joe Sokolovic said he raised the matter in the Students & Families Committee, which he chairs, to fix what he considered broken.
Weldon said the intent wasn’t to silence students, but rather to move them to more prominent quarterly student and staff recognition program. The first such program was held on March 25 in place of a regular school board meeting.
Instead of delivering their reports to the board, the reps went on stage at Batalla School to deliver it to a full audience. Some admitted to the standing-room only crowd that they were nervous.
At regular board meetings, Weldon said the idea is to have student reps contribute to board. The idea came from board member Hernan Illingworth, who said he has seen that approach work well in other districts.
“I want their take on resolutions we are debating,” Illingworth said. “Their voices are important.”
They might even persuade the board on issues, he said.
Board members say the engagement process may take time. The first step will be to bring the proposed policy change to the full board for a first read at its April 8 meeting. Student reps that now sit on the board will be asked for their input and to bring the idea back to their student bodies for comments.