Knox County school board student rep: ‘Your opinion does matter’
Celeste Urdal, 18, hasn’t even graduated from high school but she’s already had a year of first-hand experience serving alongside local elected officials.
As she nears the end of her term serving as the student voice on the Knox County school board, the Bearden High School senior knows her work on some of the most consequential decisions will guide her in the future.
Urdal was “always interested” in politics but an AP government class sophomore year was what sealed the deal for her, motivating her to apply for the position.
“My goal is to go to law school and become a lawyer,” Urdal said. She plans to attend the University of South Carolina to study international business this fall.
Even though she held a nonvoting position on the board, Urdal said the role of a student representative is invaluable. Board members don’t often hear directly from students or get to know the buzz in the classrooms.
“I know what the students think about the decisions they’re making,” she said.
Most recently, she’s heard feedback about arguably the most hotly debated topic recently in public education: private school vouchers paid for with tax dollars.
While school board members were evenly split on whether to send a message to Tennessee’s Republican supermajority as they debated Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher expansion plan in February, what Urdal heard from teachers and peers was crystal clear: they’re against vouchers because they could hurt already hurting public schools.
With public schools being “generally underfunded,” Urdal said, “it doesn’t seem to make sense to give money to private schools that could be used for public schools.”
When she saw her teachers’ passion for education, it inspired her to fight vouchers.
“I understand that maybe public school isn’t for everybody,” she said. “But that doesn’t take away all the hard work teachers have been putting in, and the teachers deserve to be paid well. They deserve to have resources and that’s a major reason why I care about vouchers.”
Before vouchers, the big issue was the snow.
When the school board was faced with an unprecedented storm and had to change the academic calendar to mitigate learning loss, Urdal heard from notso-pleased students as well as district administrators and board members who saw the need.
Her biggest takeaway from the year was witnessing board members’ political differences and how everyone still gets along.
She got a glimpse behind the scenes, even seeing board members exchange Christmas presents.
As she hangs up her hat on the position, she has one piece of advice for the next student representative: “Don’t be intimidated by the more experienced and older board members. Your opinion does matter.”
There’s no reason to be afraid of speaking up, she said.
Areena Arora, data and investigative reporter for Knox News, can be reached by email at areena.arora@knoxnews.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AreenaArora.
Above, Celeste Urdal, the student representative on the Knox County Board of Education, says she respects how the board members disagree on issues but are kind to each other in person.