By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — With Board of Education members seated after November’s election and Staples High School midterms complete, the board has named the first two students who will join the panel as non-voting representatives.

Anya Nair, a senior, and Calum Madigan, a junior, will take on the role starting with the Jan. 25 meeting, board Chair Lee Goldstein announced at the start of last Thursday’s meeting.

“We’re very excited,” Goldstein said. “They’re terrific … We’re really excited to get to work with them.”

The board decided last June to add student representatives as part of a broader school district effort to elevate student voices and encourage multiple opportunities for students to learn leadership skills.

Enacting the policy was not without controversy. The board’s three Republican members at the time all voted no, suggesting it might set a bad precedent and possibly be illegal.

In addition, Camilo Riano, a parent who was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the board last November, challenged the decision in a July letter to First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker. He contended student representatives would violate the town charter that calls for a seven-member school board elected from Westport’s pool of registered voters and does not allow additional “ex-officio” members.

Officials disagreed, saying the students are meant to participate, not serve on the board.

Goldstein said at the time that board attorneys reviewed the policy and said that adding student reps would not violate the charter.

Both she and Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice pointed out that a dozen or more school boards in the state allow students to participate with the board in some way.

The plan in Westport is for student reps to serve for two years. In this initial year, the selection took place in the fall. The senior rep will serve until graduation this spring. The junior will continue to serve through his senior year.

A new junior will be selected in the spring and begin serving at the start of the 2024-25 school year.

The students won’t have voting rights and won’t be privy to private meetings. They will be expected to give their opinions on topics discussed by the board.

Scarice told the board last spring that student reps are not meant to speak for the student body, only themselves.

The policy called for interested students to obtain a teacher’s sponsorship for their candidacy and to submit an essay about why they hoped to be selected.

Both Nair and Madigan were nominated by Staples Principal Stafford Thomas and then interviewed Jan. 5 by school board members in executive session.

Goldstein described both as passionate and positive.

Nair is an officer in the Staples Student Council. In addition to being an excellent student, Goldstein said she is passionate about working with the Board of Education and student council to make sure polices and practices have the intended impact and will benefit students at all levels.

Nair has attended Westport public schools since pre-kindergarten. She regularly reads to elementary school students and is considered a compassionate leader by her peers.

Madigan is a student-athlete on the cross country and track teams, and is also a Staples Student Council officer.

“He is passionate about creating the best experiences for students at Staples,” according to a short writeup provided by Goldstein. He also was part of the Bedford-Coleytown Middle Schools’ Leadership Council.

“He is interested in being a community leader and this position, as Board of Education student representative, will help him to fulfill this goal,” the statement read.

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.