Jesuit High School junior Annie Duan (from left), Lake Oswego High School senior Lyra Johnson and Lincoln High School senior JJ Klein-Wolf were part of a panel of Portland-area teens who presented a session at the OSBA Annual Convention on Saturday in Portland. (Photo by Jake Arnold)
The sheer number of Oregon education leaders at OSBA’s 77th Annual Convention surprised Abby Flaa, a Lake Oswego High School junior.
Around 600 people registered for some part of the Nov. 9-11 event at the Portland Marriot Downtown Waterfront hotel. School board members, administrators and education advocates from around the state came for three days of training and inspiration.
Flaa and her fellow Lake Oswego School Board student rep Ayse Bakircioglu, a Lakeridge High School senior, said they wanted to meet people and make connections.
Bakircioglu said that as a student, she often doesn’t feel like she has much control over her life. She saw the convention as an empowering peek behind the curtain on how education decisions are made.
Increasingly, educators are asking students to join them in the work behind the curtain. Schools are tapping into student committees, and boards are adding student representatives. The convention reflected some of that shift in thinking.
More than a dozen student school board representatives attended the convention, and at least four of the daily sessions included student presenters.
Marisol Jeronimo Martinez and Kristy Cao, seniors at Centennial High School in Gresham, helped lead a session on involving students in campus safety discussions. They said having a voice made them feel safer.
“Our voices matter, and our adults care for us,” Cao said.
The conference also had formal opportunities for school leaders with similar issues to collaborate beyond the usual regional roundtables. The Oregon Rural School Boards Advisory Committee held a session with an update on a resolution this year to create a new OSBA caucus. The LGBTQIA2S+ Advisory Committee held a networking breakfast.
The event included a preconference day on an effective board’s capacity to raise student achievement, and workshops for school attorneys and administrative professionals. Dozens of sessions tackled current education issues and school board governance.
Time and again, presenters talked about finding the best ways to promote students’ social, emotional and academic development.
During the Saturday morning session, OSBA Board President-elect Sami Al-Abdrabbuh emphasized the importance of student voice.
“They know what works for them and they know what doesn’t work for them,” said Al-Abdrabbuh, a Corvallis School Board member.
Jill Conant, a Malheur Education Service District board member, said the chance to meet with “people who are united for the same goal” made it worth the long trip from eastern Oregon.
Heather Franklin of the David Douglas School Board homed in on sessions from the Baker School District about their revolutionary teacher salary approach and the Umatilla School District on redesigning their substitute teacher structure.
Aaron Barrow of the David Douglas School Board values the conference’s wide-ranging learning opportunities, both during sessions and between sessions.
“There is 10,000 years of experience here,” he said.
Some of that experience resides in the young people. At a session on developing student voices in school governance, Lincoln High School senior Diego Romero reminded attendees it’s a conversation.
The Portland teen said students need to hear and understand school board members too. He said students can more effectively collaborate and advocate for themselves if they know what a school board can actually do.
Lincoln senior JJ Klein-Wolf was thrilled to have an opportunity to talk to “a roomful of adults who looked like they were excited and engaged.”
“It puts my mind at ease something will get done,” she said.
School leaders from all over Oregon asking questions energized Lake Oswego High School senior Lyra Johnson.
“It’s good to know there are people out there who are listening,” she said.
– Jake Arnold, OSBA
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