Cape Elizabeth High School students are speaking up about adding their voice to the school board.

In March, members of the student body proposed a policy to have two student representatives sit on the board as non-voting members.

According to Patricia Brigham, chair of the school board’s policy committee, students came to the board with a similar request a few years ago, but ended up dropping the proposal. “They decided it would be too much of a commitment for a high school student,” she said.

Heather Furman, president of the senior class, said the interest in having a voice on the school board stems from an incident last school year when students wanted a change in the school’s alcohol policy but had a hard time accessing school board members and “trouble getting the ball rolling.” According to Furman, Principal Jeff Shedd first made the suggestion to the students to consider trying to team up with the school board. That way, Furman said, when policy affects students, “we could be in the direct line of communication.”

According to school board Chairwoman Kathy Ray, “This is happening with a lot of boards right now.” Ray said she supported the policy because “students will get to see what the school board does and how decisions are reached.” Brigham believes there’s a benefit in it for the school board as well; by bringing in the student perspective, the board’s decision making will be improved, she said.

The guidelines drafted in the policy for students to be elected to the school board starts with the submission of 50 student signatures supporting the nomination. Though voting school board members only need 25 signatures to be nominated, Ray said that the higher number was chosen for students in order to “show that they’re very committed.”

After submitting signatures, students will attend an informational meeting with the superintendent and representatives from the school board and the student council. They will complete an application consisting of an essay, short answer questions and a resume. The applications are then reviewed by the class presidents, the Student Activities Committee president, two faculty members, two school board members, an administrator and the superintendent, who pick a maximum of five applicants. The five candidates will participate in a school-wide question and answer session, followed by a vote. Seniors are excluded from the assembly and the vote.

The responsibilities of the students elected to sit on the school board include attending monthly business meetings, workshops and committee meetings. The students and the board will decide upon one standing committee for each student to serve on. According to the policy, any school board meeting will take precedence over all other extra-curricular activities. The students must also attend all student advisory council meetings, where they will provide updated information on issues at the school board level and an update of their own accomplishments.

According to Brigham, the policy committee “addressed the two areas that some of the board members had concerns about,” which were the number of signatures required and a step that was eliminated from the application process which required applicants to be approved by the Student Activities Committee before going to the school-wide vote.

Furman said that students made compromises in order to secure a seat on the board. “We had to tweak the policy in order to make sure we got someone on,” she said. “All we needed was a student voice.”