HOWELL – Elementary students had the opportunity to voice their opinions as they took on positions of the Howell Township Board of Education.
At a recent meeting, staff and students celebrated Student Board of Education Day. The day-long event doesn’t start and end at the meeting. Students are first chosen by board members through an essay contest. A total of 15 were chosen, three students from each grade 3 to 5.
After being selected, nine of them were chosen to represent board members – one board president and one board vice president. Five were chosen to be senior administrators, including the superintendent, and one was chosen as board attorney.
During the day, the students were broken up into three committees. Those committees were Policy, Operations, and Education. Depending on ideas they wrote about in their essay, the students were assigned to a committee.
At the meeting, students discussed items that they included in their essay and had the chance to explain their viewpoint. Some topics consisted of creating a cleaning club, sustainable schools, bottle fill stations, adjusting their MS science and social studies schedule and more.
Additionally, the students recommend the support of a proclamation signed by Governor Murphy making April Child Abuse Prevention Month. They then forwarded that proclamation and asked the Board to adopt it and send it out to legislators.
This is the 5th year the district has held Student Board of Education Day. When asked what they learned from this experience, one student said “they felt the board of education does a lot more for the schools than they actually thought they did.”
Howell BOE President Al Miller said Student Board of Education Day is a great opportunity where students felt their voices were being heard.
“It was great to see the dedication of each and every student to this experience. They all came in with great ideas and in the committee meetings they were ready to explain why their ideas would work,” Miller said.
“The Student Board of Education Day is a wonderful experiential learning opportunity for our 5th grade students. This civics activity helps to engage and educate students in our local government processes and the important role of the school Board,” Superintendent Joseph Isola said. “It is one of my favorite days of the school year, as I get to work firsthand with our students who continuously serve as a source of pride for our school district.”
