Rose Lee and Corryn Pacheco are the voices of the students. Both
represent their peers on their respective school districts’ Board
of Trustees.
Rose Lee and Corryn Pacheco are the voices of the students. Both represent their peers on their respective school districts’ Board of Trustees.
Lee, an Anzar High School senior, serves on the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District Board. A San Benito High School sophomore, Pacheco sits on the SBHS District Board of Trustees.
Although neither can vote nor attend closed sessions, their presence is important.
“(Student representatives) provide an avenue of communication to student leaders,” said former SBHSD Superintendent Richard Lowry. “It gives the board information on student activities. … They have the right to speak.”
Even though Lee and Pacheco are there to be the voice of the district’s students, they also learn from the board.
“I wanted to see that point of view – see what the teachers see and deal with,” Lee said. “I get to see how things happen.”
Lee, who represents the district’s 1,400 students, understands the importance of the board, and, thus, the importance of having a person assert student interest.
“The school board has every responsibility. They’re running the education of all the community’s children,” she said. “They’re making decisions for a lot people.”
Although Lee’s vote doesn’t count, she can vote and have it noted, but she decides not to sometimes. She votes on issues she understands, but will abstain when she doesn’t or there is some arguing amongst board members.
“It’s not my place to take sides. My vote doesn’t count,” she said.
Student representatives help the board focus on what’s most important, ASJUSD Superintendent Jackie Munoz said.
“Often, we get a student’s perspective that adults sometime forget because we’re adults,” Munoz said. “(In my experience in the district) we have had students step forward and say something very profound.”
Lee said ASJUSD Trustees have asked her about issues concerning graduation exhibitions, Anzar’s intersession and the state’s cuts in education spending. Board members want to know about student reactions to these issues.
Munoz said Lee is asked for input about any kind of curriculum development at Anzar that is brought to Trustees.
After hearing about the position, Lee pursued it and was informally appointed to the position by Anzar’s Associated Student Body, said Wayne Norton, Anzar’s site manager.
To prepare for meetings, Lee talks to students and observes what issues are affecting students, which includes attending Anzar’s ASB meetings. But, one thing Lee is worried about is that students do not know there is a student representative to the board. She said she plans to be more visible and increase awareness about her position on campus soon.
The senior works up to 30 hours a week and serves as vice president of Anzar’s California Scholarship Federation.
“(The marathon meetings) are hard for me,” Lee said. “But, it’s pretty interesting. I never don’t want to go (to the meetings).”
Corryn Pacheco
Halfway through her term, Pacheco said she already plans to run again next year.
“I really enjoy the position. I like the people on the board,” she said. “… They respect me when I talk and (they make me feel that) what I say is important.”
Pacheco said the position is important because it represents students, which are part of the community, not just the school.
There has been a student on the SBHSD board as long as Lowry can remember. There are 2,885 students attending schools in the district.
Student representatives help Trustees see the student’s side of an issue. Board member Judith Rider said having a link to students is important.
“When they’re really upset, it’s nice to know that,” she said. “We usually wouldn’t know otherwise.”
When community members were concerned that the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11 would not be recognized properly, the board asked Pacheco for input, she said. A moment of silence and a vigil were organized. Also, the board will sometimes ask Pacheco how funds should be spent, she said.
Pacheco went through an interview process after which she was appointed to the position by a panel made up of the ASB president, vice president and advisor. About five other students applied for the position, according to Juan Robledo, SBHS activities director and ASB advisor.
Robledo said student representatives have to be “intelligent, lively, cheerful, well mannered and able to converse in a mature manner.”
A few weeks before the monthly meetings, Pacheco visits various student organizations to see if they would like her to present anything at the meeting. She talks with SBHS’s ASB and even some teachers will discuss concerns with her, especially about the state’s budget cuts in education.
“Having a student representative is important,” Pacheco said. “Everything they (the board) do affects me. I can look at things differently than them.”
