School may be out of session, but the fourth round of student representatives to the Prince William County School Board have been announced.
Rising seniors Ben Kim of Stonewall Jackson High School and Caroline Silvera of C.D. Hylton Senior High School have been chosen to serve as co-student representatives to the school board. Rising senior Ashley Menjivar of Woodbridge High School was additionally chosen as an alternate student representative. These three students were chosen out of a list of twenty-one finalists.
“I am so grateful for this position because this is something I’ve been excited about for a while. The other student reps and I hope to meet virtually soon and discuss what our hopes are for this year,” said Silvera.
This will be Kim’s second term as a student representative, even though the Prince William County Schools website states that student representatives ‘serve for one term concluding with the final School Board meeting of the school year.’
“Our process allows for rising eleventh and twelth graders to apply. There is no wording in our Policy 124 that limits students to only applying or serving once. The page [the aforementioned Prince William County Schools website]… is worded so students understand the positions are for one school year. No wording specifically states students are limited to only one term,” said Jeff Girvan, the supervisor of History & Social Science at Prince William County School’s Office of Student Learning.
The student representative position was created by the school board in 2017. The first representative was Kate Arnold, a C.D. Hylton High School alumna and current student at the College of William & Mary.
The students within the position are non-voting members who must fill out an application, write a timed essay, and complete an interview. They are also required to be a junior/senior, hold a 2.5+ GPA with no failing grades, commit to attending every school board meeting, and more.
“[Student representatives to the school board must] participate in a non-voting capacity at School Board meetings representing the student’s voice by sharing ideas, suggestions, and concerns, and inform Prince William County Public Schools students of the reports and decisions made at open meetings of the School Board through Prince William County School Board minutes,” according to the school board website.
Due to the fact that all of the recent school board meetings have been emergency/electronic meetings, the student representative’s time to speak at school board meetings have been cut. It is currently unknown when that time will return.
