ML School Board okays student reps

MOSES LAKE — Two student representatives are expected to join the Moses Lake School Board this fall.

At an online meeting Thursday night, the board voted unanimously on a proposal to add two high school students as non-voting members of the school board.

Under a proposed policy brought to the board by MLSD Executive Director of Student Services Dave Balcom, the two students must be juniors or seniors in good academic standing, will serve a one-year term on the board, receive credit and do schoolwork associated with their service on the board.

The student members will be expected to attend all board meetings and participate in board discussions, but will not be allowed to vote, participate in executive sessions, make motions or hold board offices.

The students will also take the same oath as elected school board members, Balcom added.

“We talked to districts that had student representatives for over 10 years, and they talked about students being at the heart of learning and gained some invaluable insights from student leadership,” Balcom told board members.

Balcom said it was “time for a change” and having student representatives on the school board will “help alleviate some student frustrations” and allow students to share their opinions more easily with board members and senior administrators.

In fact, Balcom said administrators already had several inquiries from interested high schoolers and the district is looking at ways to get middle school students involved.

Board member Elliott Goodrich, who expressed concerns at previous meetings student membership on the board would not accomplish very much, voted for the new policy on condition the board also crafted a timeline to evaluate the program to measure whether it was accomplishing its intended goals.

“If we’re going to do this, we should do it well, but we should also have a check in to review it to see if it is going the way we want it to,” Goodrich said.

Board member Bryce McPartland said a review of the program would not only help the board assess whether the program is working as intended, but help students determine if they were getting anything out of it.

“That would be useful for them and us,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.