WINDHAM – For years, Windham leaders have talked about finding a role in local government for the town’s several thousand youth, but until last month it was all talk and no action.

That all changed recently when the Windham Town Council unanimously voted to allow a student representative, Courtney Merrill, to sit with the council during its deliberations.

Merrill will have a counterpart on the Windham-Raymond Regional School Unit 14 School Board, Cole Moran. The school board also recently approved a proposal to allow a student representative to take part in board deliberations.

Merrill and Moran don’t have a vote, but they do have a say, and can use their position to influence decision-makers on items that are of interest to the town’s youth.

While Moran will start in January, Merrill, a junior at Windham High School and the daughter of David and Pamela Merrill of Falmouth Road, has attended two meetings so far and is excited about the opportunity.

“I thought it was great. I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” Merrill said, after being chosen for the spot by high school teachers and administrators, including Assistant Principal Kelli Deveaux. “When I talked to Mrs. Deveaux about it, she said you really have to sit down and experience it. And I had only seen one meeting on TV, so I wasn’t sure how it would go, but it was really very interesting to hear everything and see how everything works.”

Merrill aims to represent all the children and teenagers of Windham, essentially those too young to vote. Most of those children attend local schools, where Merrill said she is already reaching out for ideas from kids.

“It’s really for the youth of the community. I really want to get everybody’s voice out there, any problems that are going on throughout the school system or community and take care of that with all the board members and try to make it the best school it can be,” she said.

According to Town Manager Tony Plante, the town has been considering youth representation for a while.

“Over the years the town/school department had surveys done of community assets for its youth,” Plante said. “One of the primary findings was that there was not a strong sense that youth or youth input was valued by the community. A few years ago, the council considered establishing a youth advisory council, similar to the model in Lewiston, but did not end up supporting it at the time. To my knowledge there never has been any kind of formal youth representation on the council.”

Plante said the council will allow a student representative to serve for about one school semester. That allows enough time, Plante said, for the student to get a flavor of how the council operates and to follow an issue through to completion. Plante said the student representative won’t be expected to contribute on each discussion item.

“It will take some time to sort out exactly how this will work, and it will probably vary somewhat from individual to individual,” Plante said. “However, while we want to welcome participation and input, we don’t want to put pressure on a student councilor to feel like they have to have a position on every issue, either.”

Plante is mainly excited to get some feedback from the younger population.

“It provides a platform to hear from a constituency whose voice is typically not heard, gives one or more high school students each year a chance to be involved in their community’s decision-making process and have an experience of serving in local government,” Plante said. “The expectation is that the student councilor will check in with various groups, mainly in the high school, to help give councilors a window into what is important to them, and to hear what ideas they might have to contribute.”

Council Vice Chairman Kevin Call is likewise excited about the prospects.

“Having a high school student attend council meetings has been discussed in the past with no outcome,” Call said. It was suggested to me by Bill Diamond at a ‘Speak Out’ early in my first year on the council. I agreed it was a good idea and asked that we discuss the possibility. We are in hopes that Courtney, and future student councilors, will be a communications conduit from our high school to current and future councils. It is a great asset to have a standout student like Courtney joining us, as she knows and is in contact with more of Windham’s young adults than we are as councilors.”

The Windham-Raymond School Board is setting aside two slots for students to serve on its board in a non-voting capacity, as well. The first slot will be year-round and a second position will have two students serving six months each.

While the second student representative has yet to be determined, Moran, a senior and longtime Student Council member, has been chosen to sit on the board representing the interests of the student population.

“I’m really excited about this,” said Moran, who is the son of Scott and Patty Moran of Victoria Lane in Windham. “I think it’s such a great opportunity to close the loop of communication. There are all of these people involved: the community, the students, the faculty, the administration, and the school board. And they are sometimes separate, and that loop between the school board and the students hasn’t always been very strong as it should be. So I think this is a tremendous opportunity.”

Moran was chosen to attend Boys State this summer by Windham’s Field-Allen Post 148 of the American Legion. He was elected governor at Boys State in Augusta – the highest elected position at the program that teaches teens about state government. Moran was selected by directors to receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Boys Nation in Washington, D.C. in August to learn about the federal government.

While he was already working with a team of other students on ways to revamp student government, the two summer experiences proved invaluable with formulating better student government at the high school. Moran helped develop a charter to replace the Student Council model that students and administration agreed didn’t provide effective representation for the broad cross-section of students. The charter, which was implemented this fall, calls for student government to include two elected representatives from each class as well as a representative from each of the many clubs in school.

Moran worked directly with Windham High School Principal Chris Howell on the plan this summer getting additional input. Moran’s goal was to transform the student government to be a true reflection of the student body. And student representation on the school board plays a crucial part, he said.

“We wanted to develop a five-year plan to get more kids involved, and make the Student Council into something kids respected and believed in,” Moran said. “One of the key pieces is having board representation. Because I think that really legitimizes our group at the high school, as well as closing that loop of communication.”

Moran says there are no pressing needs in the student population that require immediate School Board review, but if one were to arise, the new system would provide a more effective way for the board and administration to get direct feedback from a cross-section of students.

Howell is impressed with Moran’s desire to improve communication and representation.

“One of the things Cole talked to us about was doing a revamp of school government, representing a larger or more diverse viewpoint of students – finding some ways they can have greater voice here at Windham High School. That’s one of the things Cole has taken on as a mission, and something our school board has paid a lot of attention to,” Howell said.

School Board Chairman Mike Duffy is likewise impressed with Moran.

“He’s an excellent student,” Duffy said. “Very intelligent. Very astute type of fellow. I think he’ll do good for the school board to give the student perspective on some of the things we discuss.”

Duffy and fellow member Marge Govoni have been eating lunch with school kids on a regular basis seeking feedback. The adoption of a student representative formalizes that practice, he said.

“There are so many issues that directly affect the students. Again, having a voice right there, instead of saying, ‘What are the kids thinking?’ and ‘How do we survey them?’ will mean a lot,” Duffy said. “Whether we go along with their recommendation or not is one thing. But at least we get their side of the story seeing they’re the ones being educated.”

Longtime board member Toby Pennels agrees with Duffy on the importance of student input.

“The student perspective can be so revealing. We tend to only get their perspective on polarizing issues and discussions. I am totally excited about student participation with respect to all the work we take on,” Pennels said.

Pennels is also glad to see the length of service afforded to the students.

“One of the particulars I was most interested in was that whoever the student is that participates, that they be afforded the time to get acclimated to the board and the board process so that they are able and willing to contribute,” Pennels said. “Becoming an effective board participant is not an overnight occurrence. It requires time, listening and, of course, the continuity aspect of following a particular issue, sometimes over months, even years of discussion.”

And while better representation is the main goal, the student representatives will not be allowed to participate in executive sessions or expulsion hearings or any personnel matter on either the council or School Board. But both Plante and Howell said the experience should be invaluable for Moran and Merrill as well as those student representatives who take part in coming years.

Students will “have an experience of serving in local government, and hopefully foster an interest in staying involved wherever they end up calling home – possibly in public office but even more importantly as an engaged citizen,” Plante said.

“We want to give a rebirth of citizen activism and people being involved with local politics,” added Howell. “You had fewer than 100 people coming to vote on the school budget before it went to [referendum] this year, so this is a way to get more people involved in the process and maybe instill some lifelong values for being involved.”

Windham High School students Courtney Merrill and Cole Moran have recently begun serving as first-ever student representatives to the Windham Town Council and Regional School Unit 14 School Board, respectively.