A New Law Requires Student Representation on the BOE: Board Considers the Process

There will be a young new face at the table at Board of Education meetings beginning in September 2025. Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed a law that requires the addition of an ex-officio student or students to school boards for the coming school year.
In order to draft a policy for Scarsdale, Board President Suzie Hahn, Superintendent Drew Patrick, Board VP James Dugan, Board member Colleen Brown, and SHS Principal Ken Bonamo met to draft the language. The Board has a great deal of discretion about the definition of the role and how the students would be selected.

The subgroup considered a possible proposal that they shared with the board at their meeting March 10, 2025. Board President Suzie Hahn said the “Board would like to extend an invitation to all interested students to apply for this role.” They recommended that one junior and one senior be selected.

The responsibilities include attending BOE meetings and school government meetings. At least one student would act as a liaison between the student government and the board. The student will be invited to attend the opening session of the Board meeting and to provide an update. They could remain as long as they like at the meetings or be excused so that their service does not interrupt homework, extracurriculars or family activities.

Based on the SBNC model, the nominating committee would be the student government as they are elected by their peers.
Qualified applicants must have good academic standing, good citizenship, the recommendation of their Dean, enrollment in the school for at least a year and residency in the school district.

Students seeking to apply will be asked to fill out an application to the Board.

Students will make presentations to and be interviewed by the nominating committee with oversight from the SHS Principal, Assistant Principal for Student Life and advisors.

There would be a minimum of two candidates for each position proposed, with a cap of four candidates for each position which the committee can choose to exceed. These candidates would then go out to election by students in grades 9-11.

In the discussion that followed many questions were posed:

Amber Yusuf asked if teacher’s children would not be qualified to run?

Leah Dembitzer said, “I like the idea of a school election during the same time as the BOE election. She said, “I think it’s important that there is more than one candidate.” She asked for a post process review to see how it worked.

Ron Schulhof asked questions about the nominating committee and asked if the Board wants to ask the students how they choose to elect the Board member. He said, “Can students who are not nominated run outside the system?”

Jim Dugan said “There is a wide range of student behaviors and some may not be appropriate BOE members, and that’s where the recommendation of the Dean comes in.” He said, “It would be problematic if anyone who wants to run could run.”

Suzie Hahn explained, “We want to have this process to protect the child and make sure they don’t get in over their head. That’s why we would like a Dean’s recommendation.”

Colleen Brown said, “We looked at how other districts are doing it. We felt that any student who wants to should have the opportunity to apply and reflect on why they want the role. We put structures in place in terms of the Dean’s recommendation. We want to be sure that the member is chosen by the students.”

Hahn said, “This is the most student- inclusive proposal I have seen.”

Schulhof asked what does “good citizenship” mean. Does this mean a U.S. citizen?” The response was “no.”

Board members also asked how “good academic standing” would be defined. Hahn clarified the intent, saying, “Can the student dedicate themselves to this role and still succeed in school.”

There was more discussion on whether or not children of faculty and tuition paying students who are non-residents should be permitted to run along with children of current or former Board of Education members. About the voting, the Board considered whether it should be done be popular or rank-choice voting.

Hahn asked if there was a general consensus on the process as outlined.

Schulhof thought the students should define the process.

Brown thought the students would need more structure for this first year.

Dugan said, “We need to set this up for success…. setting up the structure makes perfect sense.”

Hahn agreed that a structure should be set up for consistency year to year.

Yusuf asked if there was time to complete this process this year. Suzie Hahn discussed some possibilities to condense the process given the timing.