Pittsburgh Public Schools board grants students two nonvoting seats

For the first time, Pittsburgh Public Schools will have a student on its board of directors.

The board voted unanimously this week to establish the role of a non-voting student representative following a monthslong process.

Board President Gene Walker said the goal is to have student voices weighing in during board discussions.

“They’ll be involved in our regular public meeting and be able to comment just like any board member. The only distinction is they wouldn’t get a vote on those items,” Walker said this week.

Students won’t be privy to some information, such as closed-door executive sessions dealing with personnel issues, according to Walker.

According to the resolution establishing the position, the school board will appoint two nonvoting student representatives who will serve two-year terms beginning in August. Students appointed during their senior year will serve for only one year.

Students in 10th or 11th grade can apply to serve during their 11th or 12th grade years. Those interested in applying must meet certain requirements, including having a GPA of 2.5 or higher and actively being involved in the school community.

Walker explained that the board decided on two years for the positions to provide consistency.

“We wanted to make sure that we gave students, especially if they came in as a junior, an opportunity to continue the work they were doing,” he said.

Long wait

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

After he heard about the proposal during his senior year, Allderdice High School graduate Pavel Marin began pushing for position, as other school boards in the region had similar roles.

The resolution was put on hold during January’s board meeting, and Marin, 18, of Squirrel Hill, has said that he was frustrated by the delay.

“It took six months for this to finally pass,” Marin said. “We’re really late on this, but it makes me look forward to the future.”

Marin, who just graduated, said he wanted to leave a legacy behind in the school district that emphasized student voices.

“I thought it was a very necessary thing from the start,” he said of the resolution. “Student voice has always been there, but it needs to be honored, and our leaders need to take time to genuinely hear students.”

Students are a school’s “biggest customer,” Marin said, and students getting a seat at the board table is critical.

“You have to be able to reach them in that way,” Marin said.

The student representatives will be able to convey to the board what needs to be reformed and improved in the district.

Reasons for delay

One of the reasons the board was initially hesitant to pass the resolution was because members were concerned about the state of the board itself.

Director Devon Taliaferro expressed support during the January meeting for amplifying student voices. However, she said that before the board added a student representative, it needed to iron some issues out internally.

“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,” Taliaferro said in January. “I don’t know how adding a student board representative at this time will help us get there.”

Walker said the resolution was originally postponed because he and other board members believed there wasn’t enough clarity about the student roles. It was sent to the board’s policy committee for tweaks.

Pittsburgh Public Schools modeled the positions after those in the School District of Philadelphia, according to Walker.

“Part of the process of getting it together was talking with other school districts who are already doing this work,” he said.

Per board policy, he said, any new policies must go through a public presentation followed by a 30-day comment period before a board vote.

“We just wanted to make sure that we had the best kind of policy and opportunity available for kids so that we could really have them involved in as much of a process as we could,” Walker said.

Students know best

Walker anticipates that student representatives will join the board for the 2024-25 school year.

Students will be able to apply for the positions every spring, and they must submit two letters of recommendation along with their transcripts. The superintendent will then recommend two students to the board.

Since this coming fall will be the first time the representative positions will be selected, students will be able to apply at the start of the school year, according to Walker.

Marin, who plans to study policial science at Penn State University, said he wants committed student leaders to be selected for the positions — not students just looking for a résumé builder.

“I look forward to (seeing) how this plays out,” he said.

Walker said he hopes the two student representative positions diversify the school board and enlighten members with new opinions and suggestions.

“Nobody knows better than students what they need to be successful,” he said. “My hope is that this will help us as we continue on our journey of really focusing on student outcomes as a district and as a school board.”