By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — A year after the Board of Education agreed to add two non-voting student members to its table, the panel is giving the decision a positive grade while considering ways to improve it.

A vote on continuing the program is expected at the board’s May 16 meeting.

Both board members and the two students named to the panel in January say the experience has proved worthwhile.

“I feel I was able to bring a fresh student perspective to the board and provide insider information,” Calum Madigan, a Staples High School junior, said in an email to board Chair Lee Goldstein.

Madigan was preparing for an AP exam and was not at Thursday’s meeting.

His Staples senior counterpart, Anya Nair, was there and told the board the experience of spending two Thursdays a month as a student representative to the board helped solidify her decision to major in international relations and public policy when she heads off to college in the fall.

“As a student, having the ability to comment on policy changes is so impactful. Even if I’m obviously not allowed to vote, having that opinion allows administrators to think how students feel about it,” Nair told the board.

As for the board, Vice Chair Dorie Hordon — one of three Republican board members to vote against including non-voting student representatives to the board last June — said Thursday the initiative is worth continuing with some modifications.

Hordon said her understanding was that the board would be mentoring the students as well as getting their input. She said she has had no interactions with either student member outside of board meetings.

For the most part, the two students communicate between meetings with Goldstein.

Hordon said she wondered if it might be beneficial for the student members to interact with other board members as well.

“We all have different styles,” Hordon said.

Nair said she thought it would be great to learn about how other board members approach the work.

Adding student voices

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice reminded the board that adding students to the board was part of an effort to increase student voices districtwide. It became a core priority of the district’s strategic plan. The district also established a student council at Staples this year, and created student leadership groups at the middle schools.

“They have an incredibly high number of students interested in the student council at Staples,” Scarice said. A number of students have also come forward wanting to know about the Board of Education representative position, he added.

Adding student representatives to school boards is hardly new. Other districts in the state, as well as the state Board of Education, have had them for years.

This year, Nair and Madigan were seated on the Westport board in late January. The plan is to replace Nair with a rising junior in the fall, while Madigan will remain for a second year as a senior.

Going forward, student reps will serve for two years, should the board so choose.

The purpose is to offer student opinions on topics discussed by the board.

Neither Nair or Madigan have been shy.

During recent discussions about the Student Discipline Policy, both students have told the board that punishments like suspensions may not be the answer.

“Just suspension is not going to solve the problem,” Nair told the board.

“All students deserve second chances, but they need to show they are aware of what they did is wrong,” Madigan added.

Madigan said during his time on the board so far, he has been able to apply things he learned in his AP statistics class to a board discussion about a student climate survey. He also offered suggestions on what types of questions students might respond to best.

Nair, meanwhile, said she is happy to give opinions as an individual student and without the pressure of voting on anything.

“I have a friend who was [a student representative] on the Connecticut Board of Education and a lot of things we do are comparatively similar,” Madigan said.

During the Thursday meeting’s discussion about the revised Code of Conduct, Nair said that as a person of color at Staples if a leader of a group she were part of said something racist — even if they underwent sensitivity training — “There is a level of trust I would never have for that person.”

If the person were allowed to remain a member of the group, Nair said she would simply quit. She said a lot of students would agree with her.

“I’ve been in those situations,” she said. “It’s no fun.”

Board input

Board member Jill Dillon, who was not a member of the  panel when the student representative bylaw was passed, said she finds it easy to support extending the practice.

“I think they have added so much to the discussions,” Dillon said.

“Often, Anya and Calum have said things that surprised me,” said Abby Tolan, another new board member. “I would have assumed students would have thought differently.”

Board member Robert Harrington, who was on the board and who voted no to the idea last June, said Thursday the student reps have conducted themselves well and the roles should definitely continue.

Harrington said he strongly disagrees with the characterization that Republican members of the board voted “no” because they were against student representatives.

Instead, he said, he felt the Democratic majority was moving forward with the initiative, with or without a consensus.

“It felt predetermined between the chair and the superintendent,” Harrington added. “I don’t want to take away from student participation. It’s a good thing … They have been categorically a positive influence on the process.”

Hordon said the idea of having an annual review of student representation on the board is a positive thing.

Goldstein said the idea of adding a mentorship component that would include all board members could be incorporated without changing the bylaw.

Before the vote, board member Kevin Christie, chair of the policy committee, suggested that action on the bylaw be held for a second meeting consistent with approval of other board policies.

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.