The Sedona-Oak Creek School District’s governing board has a new face on the dais — one that comes as little surprise to most.
During the Tuesday, March 2, board meeting, Superintendent Dennis Dearden announced that sophomore Hunter White will serve as the district’s first-ever student representative, effective that night.
“We certainly applaud Hunter — he’s one of my all-time favorite students any place I’ve ever been,” Dearden said. “This is for many reasons. His potential leadership ability and the fact that he cares so much.” He went on to say, ”I know Hunter will bring a lot to our school board in terms of his advice and moving our school district forward. The one thing we all have in common — even though we may have differences of opinions — we want to make this district the lighthouse of this area.”
The board voted unanimously in early February to proceed with choosing a student representative on the board. The position was open to those students who will be juniors in the fall. It will be a two-year commitment with the term ending in March of the chosen student’s senior year. Because seniors have so much going on as they finish their high school career, Dearden feels this will be one less thing on their senior plate. In this case, it will give time for White to help prepare his successor.
After making the position official, the school posted the opening for about two weeks. Each student who applied was asked to fill out an application of sorts and answer six questions along with recommendations from teachers or members of the public on their abilities and character.
Dearden narrowed down the applications and along with Board President Randy Hawley, Vice President Lauren Robinson and Assistant Superintendent Deana DeWitt made the final selection.
White will not have a vote or be allowed to sit in on executive session matters. However, he will have a spot to speak on the monthly board agenda, similar to the superintendent’s update, and can ask questions throughout the board meetings or can have questions asked of him.
“I’m very honored to be here with all of you,” said White, who helped spearhead this endeavor. “This has been a few months in the making and I’m very proud that we finally got this done. I think it’s going to be critical going forward for the future of the district to have student representation on this board and to show that our community is very strong and that we represent the people that we serve. I think with this position we can really do that. I’m really looking forward to helping out and providing input from our students.”
