PORT ANGELES — As candidates for the Port Angeles School Board gear up for summer and fall elections, one nonvoting position already has been decided.
Bailey Palmer, 15, was elected as student representative to the Port Angeles School District Board of Directors last March in a student election in which 687 students — more than half of the Port Angeles High student body — cast ballots to select the 2013-2014 student government.
Bailey, who will be a junior in September, has a grade-point average of 3.8 and served as class treasurer and president, and 4-H club treasurer.
Friend encouraged her
“My best friend encouraged me to run to get me out of my comfort zone,” she said Wednesday.
She attended Monday’s School Board meeting to meet the directors and get a sense of the flow of the adult-level board meeting.
She will present the student report at the June 10 meeting under the tutelage of incumbent Laurel Jenkins and then take over in July.
Jenkins, 18, will graduate from Port Angeles High on June 14. She has been accepted into Western Washington University in the fall as a business major.
The student School Board representative sits with the directors, presents a twice-monthly report, and is available to answer questions about student preferences and reactions to board issues.
She also takes student government concerns to the School Board sometimes is called on to explain School Board actions and policies to her peers.
The student representative also travels with the board to state School Board conferences to attend workshops, take tours of the state Capitol and meet with state lawmakers and the governor.
Director Sarah Methner, who is the School Board’s representative to both Port Angeles and Lincoln high schools, said working with student representatives has been advantageous to both the students and the board.
Having a representative from the schools adds the student voice to decisions, such as whether students would take advantage of a new advanced-placement course or what they need for college applications, Methner said.
“They give us that other perspective that isn’t the administration’s or the teachers’,” she said.
Lincoln government
Methner added that there have been discussions to initiate a student body government at Lincoln High with the alternative high school’s own representative to the district School Board.
Jacob Wood, who was the student representative in the 2011-2012 school year, was a very vocal, active student representative, frequently offering his knowledge, ideas or opinions during School Board discussions — contributions welcomed by the adults, they said.
Jenkins was quieter but wasn’t afraid to speak up when she felt it was important, such as when the student government asked her to talk to the School Board about tightened rules at school dances, the School Board said.
Jenkins also was more proactive, offering information on planning for future events, members said.
“Laurel has been an advocate for her fellow students, [something] I’d love to continue to see with Bailey,” Methner said.
Bailey said she expects to start slowly but become a voice for the directors.
“I’d like to be active. I think I’ll be a little more active as my comfort level increases,” she said.
Talking points
Bailey already has been given an agenda by her peers for the next year to take to the School Board.
She said a student government summit held earlier this month identified two main issues the student leaders want to concentrate on in the 2013-2014 school year: finances and drug abuse.
The finance issue is related to a student-administration standoff on dance policies that resulted in a dance boycott that has hamstrung student fundraising.
“ASB does pay for clubs and sports,” Jenkins said.
That includes funding the trip for any student who earns a berth in a state-level sports, music or academic competition, she said.
The student government made the decision to increase the cost of an Associated Student Body membership ID card, which allows students into events at a reduced price, and increased the cost of a parking permit at school.
“People are concerned about raising the price at all,” Jenkins said, noting the high number of low-income students in the district who might not be able to afford the increased fees.
The recent death of a Port Angeles teenager due to a suspected heroin overdose and the arrest of another in relation to that death has the teenage government group talking about drug abuse among its peers.
It expects its representative to communicate those concerns to the School Board, Jenkins said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
