Student representation is a concept the Buncombe County Board of Education does not seem to be able to grasp.

Since February, I have written letters, delivered speeches and have called politicians at both the local and state levels of government about adding a nonvoting student adviser onto the local Board of Education. The student adviser would not be involved in closed sessions that concern personnel or individual students.

Student representation is not a strange concept. Along with many other states, the N.C. Board of Education has two student advisers who attend every board meeting and speak on issues affecting students across the state. Many local school boards across the country have student advisers, including several in California.

To provide equal representation to all of the county’s high schools, the student council from each school would select one delegate to serve on a student advisory panel. That panel would then nominate one person to serve as the county’s student adviser for one year. The student adviser would bring issues brought up through the panel to the school board and from the school board to the panel.

Some board members claim that having two students on school advisory committees provides sufficient representation to the student body. However, these committees are far removed from the workings of the Buncombe County Board of Education. They rightly focus on the needs at their individual schools, and that does not always represent the needs of the entire county. A student adviser would be better able to articulate the interests of all students directly to the board without having that information filtered through several layers of bureaucracy or limited to a five-minute public comment statement.

My proposal has the unanimous support from my school’s student council, 60 faculty members and the Asheville Citizen-Times. Six government officials from across the state have offered encouragement for the idea.

The school board affects the daily lives of nearly 26,000 students who have little to no input into the decisions that the board makes. Having a student adviser will not only provide representation to the students, but it will also give students a chance to participate in their local government and students will know that their opinions are heard.

I encourage everyone who has any interest in this proposal to come to the next school board meeting in August to give his or her input on the matter. I encourage you to vote for a candidate who will use his or her position for the sole benefit of the students - no one else.

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Adam King, of Asheville, North Carolina, spoke to the Buncombe County Board of Education about adding a student advisor for the third time on Thursday, June 1, 2006.

Joel Burgess, of the Asheville Citizen-Times, was there covering this story and other stories taking place that night. After King had to sit through a two-hour meeting, he delivered his speech during the public comment session.

When King finished, board members did not have any comment. According to King, the chair simply asked if there were any other comments from the public, and there was not any, so the board adjourned.

After the meeting, King talked with board members Dusty Pless and Richard Greene, two informal supporters of the proposal. They asked him about the organization he is involved with – NYRA, and they told King they wanted to do more research to try to convince other members on the board. They want to develop a consensus before making it an agenda item, but they did say that they do not understand why the other board members are against it.

Burgess wants King to write a 350- to 450-word guest column for Sunday’s education section of the Citizen-Times sometime within the next week or so.

King will not be able to deliver any more presentations until August, the month of the next normal board meeting.

In the meantime, however, King will contact the student councils of the other high schools in the county school district, and gather support from teachers and students from those high schools. If time allows, he may also propose a similar position for the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners this summer. One commissioner, David Gantt, has expressed his desire for a student advisor on the board.

“The school board has an unelected legal advisor who provides his perspective of the law,” King says. “It is time for the board to include a student advisor to provide a perspective of the nearly 26,000 students who are affected every day by the decisions the school board makes. It is time to give this proposal a try.”

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