Student pushes for 'seat at the table' with Pittsburgh Public Schools board

Allderdice High School senior Pavel Marin hopes part of his legacy gives students a voice with the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors.

A resolution to establish the role of student board representative was put on hold during January’s board meeting.

Marin is frustrated by the delay. He’s been pushing for Pittsburgh’s school board create a student position since he heard about the resolution, as other school boards in the region have student roles.

“I just know that it’s time for this to happen,” he said.

A senior student leader and staff writer of the student newspaper The Foreword at Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill, Marin said he’s hoping his advocacy of the new role will be a legacy he leaves behind.

“That’s always been my mission: make sure students have that seat at the table,” he said.

Hempfield Area School District has two nonvoting student board representatives. David Palmer, principal of the high school, said the two are typically the president and vice president of student council.

“I find it invaluable,” he said of the positions. “I think it’s a good reminder that we’re here for the kids. … It really does make a big impact with the board.”

The Pittsburgh resolution would allow two students — one junior and one senior — to hold nonvoting positions on the school board during agenda review and legislative sessions. The students would prepare a monthly report, and would not attend executive sessions unless requested by special invitation.

Marin, 17, of Squirrel Hill, is running out of time as his graduation approaches.

“I emailed every board member and asked them to prioritize this as (quickly) as possible,” he said. “It is something I care about really deeply.”

The resolution originated in Pittsburgh with school director Sala Udin, who said he’s been looking to propose it for “quite some time.”

“I think it would give (the students) greater insight into how the board functions and why we make some of the decisions that we make,” he said. “It would help them to develop a pattern for leadership and decision-making.”

Having student board representatives would allow the board to understand students’ perspectives, Udin said.

“Having a voice on the board directly from the students gives us better insight as to what the students are thinking — what their needs are and issues like that,” he said.

Marin said he believes having student representatives on the board would give board members and district administration insight they haven’t had before.

“They rely on what people tell them and what they hear on the news,” he said. “Having the insight of students is really important.”

Marin said many decisions made by the school board affect students the most.

“They represent the future,” he said. “They represent your biggest commodity … your biggest customers.”

‘We’re there to support the students’

Though Riverview School District doesn’t have a resolution or policy establishing student board representatives, Superintendent Neil English said students attend board meetings and local council meetings as part of a civics course that’s required in high school.

“The idea is that our students are involved in governance across our two towns and the school board — just to understand how local governance works,” he said.

English said students are able to provide input during the two hearings of citizens sections of the meeting.

“Some students say things, and some students are shy, so we don’t make students speak” he said. “Usually we have a number of students at the meetings, and they do participate.”

Having students attend board meetings, English said, makes the job more meaningful. It has been a reminder of why the board does the work that it does amid voting, deliberation, agreements and disagreements.

“I think all of us appreciate having students at the meetings as a reminder,” he said. “We’re there to support students.”

The resolution to establish the role of student board representative in Pittsburgh was tabled 7-2 during the January session. Directors Dwayne Barker, Piotrowski, Tracey Reed, Yael Silk, Taliaferro, Wilson and Emma Yourd voted yes. Udin and board President Gene Walker voted no.

Marin is advocating for the resolution to pass with enough time before summer. Principals could recommend students, and the student representatives could receive training.

Udin, who has been a board member since 2017, said often choosing to table a resolution and go the “policy route” doesn’t produce viable results at Pittsburgh Public Schools. The policy route means the motion would need to be passed through the policy committee rather than written through a resolution.

“I opposed tabling it,” he said. “What their motivation was for tabling it was not clear to me.”

School director Jamie Piotrowski shared her questions and concerns about the Pittsburgh resolution during January’s board meeting, alongside other members who voted to table it.

“I am in support of amplifying student voices,” Piotrowski said. “However, I don’t think that a resolution is the best way to do this.”

She said she doesn’t believe it’s the board’s responsibility to run the program, and she recommended it go through the policy committee to be written in a way that it would involve the district’s administration more.

“Because the board changes, you know, at least every two years … it makes it very difficult to have a consistent program,” Piotrowski said.

Two students, she argued, wouldn’t be representative of the whole student body as well. She said she doesn’t understand the purpose behind the monthly report, especially as students have homework and other extracurricular activities.

“While it would be a great learning experience, it can be a lot of heavy stuff in this room,” Piotrowski said. “And so, I’d be concerned about what this report is meant for.”

Director Devon Taliaferro said she “100%” believes in student voices, and she wants to make sure students’ voices are amplified.

“Many times, you know, we disregard the voices of students, but when you actually have conversations with them, their ideas are probably better than many of the things that we think and say on a daily basis — our children are brilliant,” she said.

However, Taliaferro said the board has more work to do to understand its own processes “in order to be able to articulate that” to the students.

She said she wants to make sure students’ opinions and thoughts are taken into account, but she wants to do it right.

“I do think that it would be helpful; I’m not saying that we table this forever,” Taliaferro said. “Six months from now, after we actually do our own work, and get our own selves in a way that we are very clear how to govern as a school board — I don’t think that we are successful at that right now, and I don’t know how adding a student board representative at this time will help us get there.”

Tabling the motion doesn’t indicate the school board doesn’t want to have student voices, director Sylvia Wilson said.

“I actually think that we have some very good, strong student voice advocates right now in our high schools,” she said. “We have a lot of very vocal young people giving ideas and their thoughts right now.”

Wilson said she wouldn’t have a problem with the number of student representatives being two, but the board’s uncertainty on the topic is still prevalent.

“The fact that we are still going back and forth just shows we’re not really ready, but it does not mean we won’t,” she said.

Other school districts

In Hempfield, the student representatives typically read the school mission at the start of the meeting and give the board a report of what’s been going on at the high school, according to Palmer, the Hempfield Area High School principal.

Being able to sit through the whole meeting, Palmer said, gives the students a look at how things operate in the district.

“It gives them an idea of what’s actually happening bigger than the high school,” he said. “It gives them a better perspective.”

Plum School District also has a student board representative, Superintendent Rick Walsh said.

Students at Plum are interviewed in April prior to the upcoming school year after submitting an application. A recommendation is then made by the high school administration to the superintendent, who can make the recommendation to the board.

There is one nonvoting position filled per year, and that student has the opportunity to be a part of the decision-making process during board meetings, as well as share a monthly report of happenings in the district, according to Walsh.

The representative has a voice during discussion, which enables a sense of community and collaboration, he said.

“It’s a value-add to our board meetings,” Walsh said. “Giving our students a platform to have a voice has benefitted the district.”

Hempfield Area High School also has principal’s advisory committees — one for each grade level made up of about 20-25 students so people have a chance to participate, Palmer said.

He said students can share issues and concerns about student life, and he can bring in the student council to help take possible action.

The groups meet monthly, and they’re kept separate by grade level to account for varying perspectives, Palmer said.

“We try to get a good cross-section of students,” he said.

At Pittsburgh Public Schools, a similar program already exists, but it’s an advisory committee to the superintendent instead of the high school principal. Marin, the Allderdice student, is a part of the group, he said.

Though there’s student representation in this way, the main difference is that with a student board representative role, students would be able to provide input and interact with the board directly, Marin said.

“Let’s get it done — let’s prioritize it,” Marin said.

Now that the resolution has been tabled, the next step is discussion in a policy committee meeting, which are scheduled as needed. If approved, it would be brought back to the board, Udin said.

No such meetings are scheduled as of now.