On Monday, August 2, 2021, Katie Hejmanowski was sworn in as the new Student Board Representative for the Board of Education of the Delaware City School District.
The job of the student representative is to speak on behalf of the students in all of the buildings throughout the district and to bring up thoughts or ideas to help improve the district.
Hejmanowski teaches clarinet lessons to middle schoolers, which she said gives her a unique perspective into what is going on at the middle school. “Which I think is important for somebody in my position because I want to make sure I’m representing as many people as I can, and not just the people I know personally,” she said.
Hejmanowski represents all students throughout the district to the best of her abilities, according to senior Madison Bricker. “She’s asking people all the time about how they feel about things so she can actually represent us in the right way,” Bricker said.
Representation of the students is important to the school board members.
“Our student board members are invaluable members of our team. As we’re planning changes, it’s important to consider all the options, do our research, and get feedback from our school community,” board member Jayna McDaniel-Browning said. “When you think about our high school, we have a large group of students, most of whom aren’t yet legal adults, but who are certainly mature enough to start making some decisions about their future. ”
As the student representative, Hejmanowski has a symbolic vote when voting for topics on the school board, although her vote is not factored into the final count.
Students who are interested in becoming the student board representative go through an application and selection process.
“[Dr. Stranges] explained the job to us a little bit more, and then we had to essentially write an application letter and essay about why we thought we would be good for the job, and what kind of unique perspectives we could bring to the board,” Hejmanowski said. “Then a committee of teachers and different faculty chose from the applicants.”
Social studies teacher Adam Haynes said Hejmanowski has a lot of characteristics that would be beneficial for the student board representative to possess.
“When Dr. Stranges just asked for students who were interested in applying, I approached her and asked if she would be interested because I thought she would make a great candidate,” Haynes said.
Hejmanowski said she has many goals she wants to accomplish during her time on the school board.
“My big goal is just to keep us in school. Obviously right now, things are a little bit different, especially with the new mask mandate going into effect and us trying to just keep everybody in school,” Hejmanowski said. “The strongest opinion that I’ve heard from everybody is that they just really don’t want to be hybrid again.”
Bricker agreed that she wants to stay in school, and that masks are one of the factors to staying in school full time.
“Masks…obviously, it’s not easy to enforce it, but teachers’ ability to enforce it would be helpful,” Bricker said.
The Board of Education meeting schedule is posted on the district website and the board meetings are held at the Willis Education Center.
Hejmanowski said she wants to continue to get feedback from students in order to be an active representative of the student body.
“Anybody is welcome to reach out to me at any time through my school email or my personal email,” Hejmanowski said. “And if you have questions or comments, anything you’d like me to bring up at the next meeting. That’s my job. So please feel free to do that.”