BRUNSWICK — The search is on for a new student liaison from Brunswick High School to the School Board.
As senior Julia Brown prepares to graduate from school and the post she piloted for the School Board, the quest to find her successor looms.
The position was written into to School Board policy in 2010, but it wasn’t, at first, an easy sell.
In 2009, the board voted down a similar idea to add a student representative.
Before the 2010 vote, board member Michelle Small, who consistently opposed the idea of a student casting symbolic votes during meetings, said she felt the student liaison might affect the board’s “fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of the Brunswick School Department.”
“What bothers me about having a student vote is the possibility of influence on us,” Small said. “I think that is unseemly. The only purpose of them voting would be to influence us.”
On departing, Brown said her mission was to show that students can be actively engaged in the operation of the School Board.
“As the first student liaison, I’m trying to say to the public and to the board: Look what I can do,” Brown said. “Look at me as an example from all youth because the thing that keeps youth from doing amazing things is the perception that we’re lazy and we’re apathetic, because we’re not.”
Brown said some students have already approached her about taking over the role. Some have been discouraged by descriptions of the workload, but those who keep up interest will be encouraged to submit formal applications toward the end of the academic year, Brown said.
Minor changes could come to School Board policy on the student position, according to School Board chairman and policy committee member Jim Grant, bringing it in line with other district extracurricular activities with regard to suspensions or other disciplinary action from the schools.
Technically, Grant said, the School Board is a separate entity from the schools and current policy does not provide that a student suspended from the school would also be suspended from their post as student liaison on the board.
To pass on what she’s learned piloting the position, Brown said she’s created a guidebook for the next student, including lessons on being diplomatic and on engaging fellow students in the process.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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