Revere board considers adding student member

by Sheldon Ocker

June 23 board of education work session

It began as a discussion about the efficacy of adding a non-voting, unelected student representative to the Revere board of education. It evolved into a dialogue on developing leadership skills of more than one or two students by creating a student advisory council.

Board member Jennifer Burke said she and board President Kasha Brackett spoke to Burke’s friend, who is on the board of education of a school district in Pennsylvania that includes a student representative.

“What I took away was that it was no big deal,” Burke said. “The board didn’t even really get involved with the selection of the student. … So they are responsible for connecting with the administrators of each building to collect a report to share with the board.”

She added that the student rep seldom offers comments. The Pennsylvania district requires aspirants to maintain a credible grade point average, spend at least two years in the district, submit an essay and circulate a petition endorsing them.

Burke and Brackett did not insist that Revere follow this example but offered it as something to consider.

Board members Courtney Stein and Natalie Rainey cautioned that a student board member might be intimidated and shamed when discussions became heated and contrary proposals were debated.

“I don’t want to have a difficult conversation with a kid,” Stein said, “…even though it’s a senior … where they bring an idea that I disagree with … and it feels like I’m picking on a kid.”

Rainey raised the idea of creating a student advisory council.

“The idea would be to select students that are representatives of the district, not only high school but middle school and elementary school,” said Superintendent Dan White.

White cited the discussion about limiting cell phone use.

“What I really liked about that process was that everybody was represented, or at least every voice was respected,” said White, who met with students in each school building.

Bus talk

The district’s transportation supervisor, A.J. Neitenbach, answered questions about the advisability of Revere acquiring a bus tracking app that could notify parents when buses to and from school will be late in picking up or dropping off students.

Neitenbach voiced some skepticism that such apps can do the job expected of them; in his experience he gets calls from parents only 3-5 times a year. “My answer to them is always ‘I’m not going to bring something to the district that isn’t going to work,'” he said.

However, Neitenbach did not shut the door on examining the issue and determining whether these communication tools haven’t improved.

“My whole stance is that I haven’t seen anything that makes me feel a 100% win for the district,” Neitenbach said.

He added that on morning bus pickup routes, Revere buses are seldom more than 5-8 minutes late. When school lets out in the afternoon, Neitenbach said that sometimes buses run later because of heavy traffic caused by road construction, especially on Interstate-77.

“If our routes run any later than 10 minutes in the morning or afternoon, we make a serious effort to use ParentSquare [an app that enables parents, students and school officials to communicate with one another] to notify parents.”

Board members seemed willing to explore the issue further.