MONROE — Those not represented in the Monroe Board of Education meeting Aug. 9 to voice their opinion on whether or not to change the mask policy were students — though Marissa Vosberg, a Monroe senior, hopes to change that.
Marissa, daughter of board member Phil Vosberg, gave the school board a power point presentation, proposing a program where 2-4 high school students join the board in a 2-year representative position, likely serving during their junior and senior years in high school. The first year to learn, and the second year to take on more of a mentorship role for the younger student — adding further leadership opportunities. It would be a separate program from the existing student council at the high school.
She suggested those interested could apply at the end of their sophomore year and would be expected to attend meetings throughout the school year and present once per trimester — either on student issues or what they may feel is important to share with the board. To prepare, student representatives could hold town halls and surveys with other students. Vosberg also said that while the students would bring a voice, she is not suggesting the students have an official vote, attended closed sessions, “or any other action items that the board would deep inappropriate.” Then again, all items of her proposal could be amendable and flexible, based on how the Monroe BOE would feel be most beneficial.
“I really think that there would be an opportunity here to bring some student voice to the table,” Marissa Vosberg said.
She went on to reference statistics from Russell Quaglia, executive director of the Quaglia Institute for School Voice and Aspirations.
“When students feel that they have a voice in their education, they are 7x more likely to be motivated to learn, 8x more likely to experience engagement in school, and 9x more likely to experience purpose in school,” Marissa Vosberg said. “What’s concerning about that is upon entering middle school, 61% of students feel that they have a voice and a say in their education, but by the time they reach my age and enter their senior year, that number drops to only 37%.
“When you bring student voice to the table, that makes school culture better and kids all-around — no matter whether they feel directly are on the board of education or they just know a kid on the board of education — do better academically and extracurricularly.”
There used to be a similar program with Monroe’s City Council, of which Marissa Vosberg was a part of. However, that program recently ended.
“It really opened my eyes to how important it is to be involved in your community,” she said, “what goes on behind the scenes in running the city council or running a city.”
In her work with the Wisconsin Association of School councils, a non-profit student leadership group that puts on leadership training for middle and high school students, Vosberg talked with the treasurer of the Oak Creek-Franklin school district. Vosberg learned that students helped enhance the district’s ALICE training drills. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate, steps students learn in today’s schools to practice an active shooter drill.
“Traditionally in Oak Creek, they did an ALICE drill every single day at the same time, every single month — so students only had experience with ALICE training in one classroom, in one setting. When student representatives came to the board, they shared that they wanted to do these at different times in the day when they’re in different classes, at lunch, in the library — to feel more secure and safe in their school,” Marissa said. “Board members really had no idea that they wanted that. … When they brought that to the table, students were able to feel more secure in their school and be better prepared for any active shooters that do come through.”
Waski said there has been a similar program running in the Adams-Friendship district since the late 1990s and only had good things to say about it.
“We only had two (at Adams-Friendship. First of all, they were usually wonderful and a great resource, and certainly very helpful on some issues that’s directly connected to students,” Waski said. “The only thing that I think once in a while was a challenge was a lot of the time these were very active students that were involved in a lot of other things, and getting them to the meetings — there were some times where we had student representatives where both of them were absent because they had other conflicts.”
Waski said sometimes a student representative might have three conflicts for the once-a-month Adams-Friendship board meetings — be it play practice, athletic practice or a game.
“One thing we’d have to think about is our board meets twice a month — that’s a lot. We’d have to have somebody who knows that level of commitment and be aware of that,” Waski said. “But again, I found them to be an asset. I think if you involve them, I think you’ll want to do so by having some kind of process by which people are selected.”
Board member Teri Ellefson liked the idea.
“Giving students a voice will get them involved in the process and make them feel like they’re being heard,” Ellefson said.
The board will bring up the idea for discussion again, but Waski said it was unlikely anything would happen before October, as school is not even in session yet.
