Something is missing from the new crop of students appointed to advise the St. Paul school board: a Y chromosome.
Last year, in the Student Engagement and Advancement Board’s first year, there were nine girls and four boys. For next school year, all 13 are girls.
“It’s a sign of the times. It’s also a bad sign that we’re not really promoting leadership in our boys,” school board member Mary Vanderwert said in an interview.
The school board created SEAB last year to amplify the student voice in board decisions. The group recommended reforms to the school resource officer program and gave an emotional presentation on school climate.
In year two, SEAB will take on a larger role. The students will meet more often and take turns filling two non-voting seats on the dais at formal monthly school board meetings.
SEAB has five returning members and eight new ones who will replace the graduating seniors.
Shaun Walsh, a district employee and SEAB facilitator, said 31 students applied this summer for one of the eight open seats. The students were asked to describe a positive or negative experience they’ve had in school.
SEAB members and facilitators then ranked the applications for completeness and by which students would best contribute to “a diverse, creative, solutions-based group.”
The top 20 were invited to interview with facilitators and returning SEAB members. Just two of those 20 were boys, and neither made the top eight.
Walsh said the team ranking the applicants went back and forth on what it means to have a diverse group of students.
She said they didn’t want to push a candidate out to ensure a boy made the team, because other demographics like LGBT students may not be represented either.
Notably, Johnson, Creative Arts and the alternative high schools haven’t yet had a student on SEAB; Humboldt wasn’t represented last year, and Washington Tech will have no members next year.
Walsh doesn’t see a need to change the selection process next year, but she said they hope to recruit more applicants.
She noted this year’s SEAB students are, at least, more ethnically diverse than in the inaugural year.
“You’ll see a different kind of visual diversity that we didn’t have last year,” she said.
Keith Eicher, one of the graduates leaving SEAB, was on the interview team that selected the new members. He said SEAB needs to do a better job of recruiting next year, but he’s confident the group will try to represent all students.
“They’re super passionate and super driven. I think they’re what SEAB needs,” he said.
- New SEAB members for the 2016-17 year are Amina Muumin, 11th grade, Harding; Elizabeth Rypa, 11th, Harding; Fatima Cole, 10th, Humboldt; Geeta Rajamani, 12th, Highland Park; Indira Kharel, 10th, Humboldt; Lay Lay Zan, 12th, Como Park and Rajni Schulz, 10th, Central.
- Returning members are Astrid Steiner-Manning, 11th grade, Central; Davina Newman, 12th, Highland Park; Serena Jing, 12th, Central; Serene Lewis, 11th, Highland Park; Skyler Kuczaboski, 12th, Harding.