The following report is from the Harford County Regional Association of Student Council’s Student Voting Rights Task Force:
A Student Representative on the Harford County Board of Education (SROB) is elected each year from the Harford County Regional Association of Student Councils (HCRASC). However, this student member does not have voting rights on the Board of Education.
The Harford County Regional Association of Student Councils has formed a student voting rights task force, led by Christina McIntyre (President of the Bel Air High School Student Government). Members include the current Student Representative on the Board, Anthony Cofrancesco, the President of the Harford County Regional Association of Student Councils, Adam Hiob, and Anna Wasielewski, a student government member from Harve de Graced High School.
The students of HCPS have supported obtaining partial student voting rights for the student representative on the Board of Education for several years. The Harford County Board of Education has supported partial student voting rights for the past two years. In 2010, partial student voting rights for the student representative on the Harford County Board of Education also received the support of the Maryland House of Delegates.
The process of obtaining partial student voting rights for the Harford County Student Representative on the Board begins with the Board of Education. On Monday, December 12, Anthony Cofrancesco, Christina McIntyre, and Anna Wasielewski gave a presentation to the Board on the issue of partial student voting rights. These students fielded questions from the Board and heard the Board’s concerns. On December 19, the Harford County Board of Education will be voting on partial student voting rights. Prior to the vote, the HCRASC Student Voting Rights Task Force will be addressing the concerns presented by the Board and urging the Board to support partial student voting rights for the Harford County Student Representative on the Board.
If the Board votes to support partial student voting rights, the HCRASC Student Voting Rights task force will then be trying to obtain the support of the Harford County Council and the County Executive. The Task Force will be working with the Maryland General Assembly to find a sponsor for the partial student voting rights bill in the House of Delegates and in the Senate. After receiving the support of the Harford Delegation and passing through the Maryland General Assembly, the bill will hopefully take effect in the 2012-2013 school year.
The Student Representative on the Harford County Board of Education currently has a “recorded opinion vote”. This recorded opinion vote will, if partial student voting rights are obtained, become an actual vote. Partial student voting rights excludes students from voting on matters of collective bargaining, budget, personnel, etc. The Student Representative will gain admittance to closed session Board meetings with the exception of meetings on matters which are not included in partial voting rights. However, the Harford County Board of Education will always be able to exclude the student representative from a closed session meeting. The selection process for the Student Representative on the Board will also be changing. SROB candidates must currently complete a rigorous application process, be interviewed and approved of by the HCRASC Executive Board, and be elected at an HCRASC General Assembly. Under the new process, two candidates will be elected from among HCRASC. These two candidates will be voted on by every HCPS student in grades 6-12. An election will be held at every middle and high school.
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