Student voice at the table
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Rutland High School student Daniel Wigmore was named representative to the Rutland School Board. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: June 9, 2009
In between soccer practice and trying to rewrite the rules for Rutland High School's student governing body, 17-year-old Daniel Wigmore had something else on his mind, something he said he had longed to do even before he was a freshman.
"In middle school, in the (student) planners they had a list of School Board members and I saw (high school senior) Drew Peterson's name," Wigmore said.
"It's something that I always admired and dreamed of doing," he said.
Following in the footsteps of student representatives before him, Wigmore was recently elected by his peers to the Rutland School Board as student liaison for a one-year term beginning next school year.
At the board's regular meeting tonight at 7 p.m., Wigmore will be sworn in as a nonvoting member with a big voice.
According to student representatives who had previously served, frustration and enlightenment came with the job as well as the power to be a peer advocate, with opinions that voting School Board members would often hear loud and clear.
Nearly each time outgoing student rep Nicholas Ouellette spoke, he offered a different perspective for School Board members to think about.
During the budget process, he vouched for teachers over school supplies and, during a controversial discussion on students being allowed to go on international field trips with stricter-than-normal rules, Ouellette told the board that students would be willing to deal with the new rules.
He also said he thought students should have been more involved before School Board members made decisions.
The most satisfying part of the job, according to Ouellette, was learning how complicated it is to run a school system of Rutland's magnitude.
"As a student you don't get to see the administrative side," said Ouellette, who is heading to Harvard for his undergraduate studies by year's end. "And just being on TV … people would see me and call me the 'School Board kid.'"
His advice for Wigmore — "Get involved in meetings and make sure you speak up. There were times I wanted to say something and didn't … I wish I had."
Wigmore, born and raised in Rutland and on the high school's soccer, lacrosse, and alpine ski teams, said he ran for the School Board spot on the platform of being an "advocate for the student body and doing the best job to portray their feelings to the School Board."
Wigmore said there wasn't anything at school that particularly concerned his peers and "there isn't a general disagreement against any one school policy."
He did say, however, that there may be differences of opinion among students who have experienced things he hadn't.
To them, Wigmore said he'll keep an open ear.
"I understand why I'm not able to have a vote," he said. "It wouldn't be fair, only being elected by the students and not by the taxpayers."
"But I will be able to explain the feelings of the student body and get across what the students need."
Rutland's Charles Romeo, a recent graduate of Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, was the first student representative on the School Board in 2000.
He said the experience was invaluable —what he learned about the School Board's role in student education and student life, the good and the bad.
"I learned about Act 60, curriculum and got a full packet (of information like any other School Board member), with the exception of any personnel issues," Romeo said.
In some cases, Romeo said, decisions were already outside the board's purview.
"The School Board didn't have a say over it, that was a tough part of my job," Romeo said about a book bag issue that arose when he was liaison.
"I admire that the new kid wants to take on the role of being the voice of the students," Romeo said, "but there is learning curve there."
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
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