By Friday, Howard County students will have elected a new student member to the Board of Education.
Wossen Ayele, a junior at Atholton High School, and Amy Butler, a junior at Wilde Lake High School, are finalists for the position to serve as the student voice on the School Board.
One of them will replace Jeff Lasser, a senior at Atholton High and current student member of the board.
Their campaigns have included creating voter education guides, posting signs, talking to students and appearing on local cable shows.
They also have learned how to file finance reports, since they could each spend up to $250 of their money, said Tony Miceli, a teacher at Burleigh Manor Middle School in Ellicott City and adviser for the students.
“We have 33 schools participating in the voting … in grades sixth through 11th,” Miceli said. “I plan to personally tell them the winner on Friday at 3 p.m.”
According to the voter guides, Ayele supports:
» Better communication between the Board of Education and the general public;
» Partial voting rights for the student board member;
» Eliminating the achievement gap.
Butler supports:
» Cultivation of the Career Academies;
» Full voting rights for the student board member.
In a related issue, Howard County students have been marshaling their forces in support of legislation that would grant the student member partial voting rights on issues such as redistricting and student appeals, said Joshua Michael, student member of the state Board of Education and a senior at Centennial High School.
Currently, student members only have an opinion vote on the board.
Michael said students hope the legislation is passed so the county student board member can have partial voting rights for the 2007-08 school year.
