Recently, we had a member here at Ripon high, Lydia Waters swore into Ripon’s unified school district school board. Lydia is a senior at Ripon Highschool and she is enthusiastic about being voted in as a student herself she can bring a different perspective to things.
“I would like to bring a more student perspective on things that other students are disconnected to,” said Lydia Waters, senior.
She can bring a student perspective to aspects such as the dress codes and possible schedule changes like we had over the summer this year. Or things that students would have changed, within reason. This is something Waters had run a campaign for last year and over the summer had some training.
So what are the responsibilities of being a school board member?
“I am responsible for contacting Ripon Unified schools for information they need, as well as Harvest to see if all the schools are getting their needs,” said Waters.
Presentations are also required to be made at meetings and being an active school board member. The school board also votes on all decisions for the schools and new rules so having a fellow student to represent the school will be beneficial.
The school board needs members who are dedicated to the decisions they make and people who will influence change if needed and Waters will do all of those things. Recently there have been a lot of choices to make and having a voice from the student body can possibly take more into consideration the ideas of the students.
Adjusting and being the head of decision-making with some of the situations that we are in right now are not easy and it is important to have people like Waters to provide more perspective to all of that. The school board has members who are parents of students, former teachers and principals, and now a student to keep everyone’s ideas and best interests in mind.
Lydia is the fourth Waters to be on the school board so she should be somewhat familiar already as far as expectations and things like that. Congratulations and good luck to our newest school board member.