Cape to implement new student advisory, board liaisons

Students in Cape Henlopen School District will have a chance to make their voices heard at the district level through a new student advisory to the superintendent and student board of education liaison positions, Superintendent Jenny Nauman announced at a March 26 board meeting.

“At the end of the day, all of the work done at the district level is done to support the 6,731 students of the Cape Henlopen School District,” said Caleb Marcus, a junior at Cape High who came up with the idea for the advisory. “As students of this district, we are directly and indirectly affected by every decision made by this board. I feel like it is only fair that our voices are heard and enshrined in policy.”

Marcus has volunteered his time at the Delaware Department of Education for the past year, seeing how student voices shape conversations and decisions at the state level. The experience, he said, made him realize the district lacked a direct lane to pull student voices into consideration on matters.

That’s where the advisory group comes in.

The group will comprise eight to 10 Cape students in grades nine through 12. Members will be intentionally selected to reflect a diverse range of student experiences, including academics, sports, arts, career and technical pathways, and student leaders.

The group will meet with Nauman four times a year, each for 45 minutes to an hour, with a structured agenda.

According to Cape social studies teacher Jonathan Day, he’d been talking with math teacher Alexa Rodsan about restructuring the high school student government to give more students a seat at the table when Marcus came to them with his idea.

“[Student government] has turned into a little bit of a popularity contest,” Day said. “With [what] we’re doing, we’re allowing more students to get involved, going beyond just those who get the most votes within student government.”

“We want a diverse group of kids who are really involved and in it for the right reasons,” Nauman added.

One junior and one senior from the advisory group will also be selected to serve as non-voting liaisons to the school board. Liaison responsibilities will include attending public portions of board meetings, providing a brief student update during meetings once a month, sharing highlights of student life and perspectives, and serving as a bridge between the student body and district leadership.

The students will serve in an advisory capacity only and will not participate in voting, nor will they have formal board membership. Their participation will be limited to appropriate public portions of meetings.

Interested students may fill out a brief application, with optional inclusion of a resume or activity summary and recommendations.

There will be a panel interview process with school administration, teachers and possibly district or board representatives.

Final selections will be made by the high school, including the student government and Principal Kristin DeGregory, and will be designed to ensure a balanced and diverse group.

The application window will be open from April to May; from May to June will be the application review and interview process, selection of students and identification of liaisons.

Then, this summer will bring an orientation and preparation ahead of the start of advisory meetings in September and October. Student liaison updates at board meetings will also start in early fall.

In the future, Nauman hopes to open the advisory to students in middle school and maybe even elementary school.

For now, though, the goal is to establish a thoughtful, scalable pilot with high school students.

“I’m really, really excited about what this can look like,” Nauman said.