The St. Paul school board this week approved a $35,200 consulting contract to devise a new model for students to weigh in on board decisions.
The board in 2015 created the Student Engagement and Advancement Board, made up of as many as 13 high schoolers who performed research, made recommendations and took turns attending school board meetings as non-voting members.
Notably, the students persuaded the board to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement and advocated for changes to the school resource officer program, which since has been eliminated.
But SEAB hasn’t been active in the last four school years after its staff facilitator left and then the coronavirus pandemic halted many student activities.
The district tried to restart SEAB this school year by hiring a new facilitator, but no one applied for the job during the 20-day window in July.
The three consultants with the nonprofit Youth Leadership Initiative include a former SEAB member. They will interview past facilitators and SEAB members, as well as current student leaders, board members and staff as they draft a new model for student input.
School board member Jessica Kopp said that model may or may not look like the old SEAB.
“I know it’s super frustrating” to go back to the drawing board, but the district will benefit from creating a strong foundation, Kopp said.
The district will pay for the contract with money left over from last year’s SEAB budget.