The District 200 Board of Education will now have a student sit at the table with board members during all open session meetings, an action passed at the Sept. 26 board meeting with a unanimous vote.

The plan calls for eight delegates, two from each grade level. Two seniors will rotate on a monthly basis, meaning only one delegate gets to sit at the table. The other six are there to report to the seniors about their grade level’s concerns.

All seven of the board members voted yes on the measure, with many of them expressing their excitement for the step towards closing the gap between the student body and the school board. “I’m excited that we are moving to this new level,” said Board President Tom Cofsky minutes before the vote.

Rules laid out by the Illinois School Code limit the ways students can participate in board meetings. Although the delegates are sitting at the board table, they do not get to cast a vote, attend the closed door meetings and access any of the closed door agendas. According to the school board, they are there “to gather student input on district-wide issues affecting the student body.”

The idea to have a student delegate sitting at the table started at the March 21 board meeting, when Board Member Audrey Williams Lee made a presentation showing the advantages of student representation on the board and what other schools in the Chicago area are currently doing. The board then recommended that Superintendent Greg Johnson continue with the idea and create a full proposal. This was followed by multiple meetings between Johnson and the Student Council, until a final plan was proposed at the Sept. 12 Committee of the Whole meeting. This plan was met with major support from the board, and with a few minor changes was voted unanimously yes on Sept. 26.

The student delegation will continue on a trial basis. The first delegates will be chosen in January of 2025 and the trial will continue through May of 2026, when the situation will be reevaluated. The delegates will be selected by the board with no input from the student body. The students will go through an application and interview process before being chosen. The freshmen and sophomores will serve one-year terms, and the juniors will serve two-year terms. The juniors will then become the senior delegates when the previous seniors graduate.

Senior Nora Butterly, the current Student Council’s board representative, currently gives brief remarks to the board to report on the issues that the Student Council and student body are concerned about. This position is very different from the stu-
dent delegates. The major difference is the delegate will be allowed to sit at the table and openly discuss issues.

When asked why this was necessary, Butterly said, “Our past board representatives have presented various ideas, but there was no set mode of communication to hear the board’s progress or opinions on the matter.”