By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The Board of Eduction will be getting student representatives, but the decision was not unanimous.

Along party lines, the board’s four-member Democratic majority voted Monday in favor of a plan to welcome two non-voting high school students to the table once they are selected next fall.

The board’s three Republicans voted no, all saying they support elevating student voices, but questioning if putting them on the panel might set a bad precedent and possibly be illegal.

“I want more discussion,” board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer, a Republican, said in an unsuccessful bid to table action.

Heyer said she struggles with the notion that adding student members could unilaterally change the composition of the board and open the door to others becoming advisory members to the board.

Since the proposal was first discussed by the board in April, some members of the community have suggested that adding students would require a change in the town charter.

In a letter to the RTM, resident David Kershner said that, based on his interpretation of the charter, the composition of the board cannot be changed outside of elected Representative Town Meeting and selectpersons voting to amend the charter.

“Whether or not one agrees with the idea of adding students to the BOE, even in a non-voting capacity, the process by which they are added should be identical to the process by which adult BOE representatives are chosen,” Kershner wrote.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said prior to Monday’s meeting that the board’s attorney advised him the board can add student representatives.

A dozen or more school boards in the state already have student members, Scarice added.

Board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein, a Democrat, said Westport is not doing something new, but catching up to other districts.

“If it doesn’t work, I feel confident we can tweak it,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein, too, said legal advice was sought and that the town attorney deferred to the board’s attorney, who advised that adding student reps would not violate the town charter.

Why add students?

Adding student seats to the school board is part of the district’s strategic plan which calls for student voices to be elevated. The idea is just one way, Scarice said.

The plan also calls for the district to get feedback from students on a more regular basis and to create a Student Assembly at Staples High School made up of 10 members from each class.

“These student voice opportunities are really exciting,” Scarice told the board.

Board member Kevin Christie, a Democrat, chairman of the policy committee, said the plan is to seat two student members, a junior and a senior.

Interested students will seek a teacher to sponsor their candidacy with a letter of recommendation. Recommended students will then submit an essay related to their desire to serve. Interviews will be conducted, and names of the finalists submitted to the board, which would make the final selection.

For the 2023-24 school year, the selection process would take place in the fall, with the two new student reps installed following the November Election Day.

In subsequent years, the process would start in the spring for the next rising junior.

The plan is for students to serve two years. The students will have no voting rights and won’t be privy to private meetings or board correspondence.

They would be expected to give their opinion on topics discussed by the board.

Since the last time the item was discussed, Christie said the bylaw language was changed to make it clear the student reps are not actual board members.

The students participate with the board, but do not serve on the board, according to the adopted language. It calls the board to review the process before the start of the 2024-25 school year to see if any changes are appropriate.

Heyer asked how student reps to the board would work with the planned student assembly.

“Who is the voice of the student?” she asked, wondering what would happen if the reps and assembly didn’t share the same views.

Scarice said the student reps are not meant speak for all 1,700 Staples students, only themselves.

Board member Dorie Hordon, a Republican, said she was still not sold on the idea.

“I am all for student voice,” she said, but with a broader approach than two board reps. “I have a different opinion on how to elevate student voices.”

Board member Robert Harrington, a Republican, said he is supportive of hearing from as many students as possible. But he said he struggles with the student representative idea and strongly opposed the policy as proposed.

He called the plan “a little chaotic.”

Board member Christina Torres, a Democrat, said she was confused by the objections and fully supported adding student reps.

So did board Secretary Neil Phillips, a Democrat, who said the panel’s composition would not change by adding students.

“I am in full support of this. It makes perfect sense,” he said.

Public comments

Most speakers during the public comment portion of the discussion agreed.

Students “will ask really good questions,” said Joan Gillman, a parent. “Draw out points of view adults don’t have.

Elena Caggiano, a Staples PTA co-president, called it an amazing opportunity for the board and students.

“Students are who you are supposed to be serving,” Caggiano said.

RTM member Harris Falk, of District 2, said since students have to live with decisions made by the board, they should have more than the three minutes the rest of the public gets to express their views at board meetings.

“They know what is going on in the schools,” he said.

Camilo Riano, a parent who in April said the idea made no sense, said Monday there is no logic in having students have more rights than he does in addressing the board.

Getting an attorney’s opinion doesn’t make something legal, Riano added.

“It is very difficult to understand why you are doing this.”

Michele Carey-Moody, the other Staples PTA co-president, said any adult who wants a seat at the table need only run for it.

“I feel like I am in a Twilight Zone episode,” Carey-Moody said. “It is a nice thing to elevate students.”

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.