As Student Representative on the School Board, it is my job to represent and articulate the views and concerns of all MMSD students to the School Board and the administration. The Student Representative is chosen in a spring election by all the high school students in the district, participates as a full Board member in all open sessions, and is allowed an advisory vote.

The position is essential to keeping the Board in touch with the students it serves and allowing the students a liaison through which their views can be expressed.

In order to stay in touch and communicate with other students, I go to each of the district's high schools to talk to students about their views, I make presentations to different student groups promoting student government, and I distribute my contact information, which is available both in the Student Handbook and on the district website.

However, the most influential and informative way in which I communicate with other students is the Student Senate, a district-wide student government body made up of 8 students from each of the district high schools, including Shabazz.

The Student Senate discusses district issues, recommends and drafts official student views, and even writes board policy, such as last year's Food Policy. The Student Senate meets every two weeks, and I report its agenda and discussion to the Board at each regular Board meeting.

Some of my goals for this year have already started to be realized. The School Board has amended the food policy to allow school stores to stay open during lunch, a huge help to high school marketing departments. In addition, Student Senate has worked with Shabazz students to come up with a plan to allow Shabazz to have its own lunch program, instead of sharing with Sherman Middle School.

Other goals, such as in-depth discussion of heterogeneous and homogeneous class grouping in our schools and further examination of our district's expulsion policy and code of conduct, I look forward to working on in the future.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at comments@madison.k12.wi.us.