Baltimore County school board's new student member seeks to give peers "a voice"

Since third grade, Rodgers Forge resident Aislinn Bratt has participated in debate events, analyzing issues and forming arguments to support her stance.This year, Bratt is getting the chance to use those debate skills to affect public policy in Baltimore County as the student member on the 12-person school board.She started in July — weeks before she returns to classes — and says her nine years of debate training have honed her abilities.&quot;Not only do I get to critically think and research different topics, but now I get to make a difference in my community and make an actual change,&quot; the 17-year-old Towson High School senior said. &quot;It felt like the right place for me.&quot;About 200 student delegates from the county's middle and high schools elected Bratt at a forum in March, the first time the student member has been elected by peers. In the past, the student member was recommended by a panel of adults and appointed by the governor.Bratt says she plans to focus on communications and listening to the voices of students in Maryland's third-largest school system, one that is grappling with issues ranging from renovating schools to standardized testing.&quot;I just want to make sure that student voice is really held on a platform at BCPS,&quot; she said. &quot;I think it's really a prerequisite for solving all other issues in our school system, because how do you address bullying if you don't know who is being targeted? How do you address issues of equity if you don't know who feels wronged?&quot;Students have communication outlets, such as social media, and school websites, but that's often one-sided, with students going to the website to get information from the system only.&quot;I want to create a platform where I can communicate with students, and students can also respond to me,&quot; she said.On Friday, she hosted a six-student equality panel for school administrators so the leaders could learn how they can make students feel safe and welcome.For example, she wants to discuss barriers faced by English for Speakers of Other Languages students. County schools report serving speakers of 110 languages.&quot;One girl shared with me that when teachers call on her to read in front of the class, that's one way she felt targeted,&quot; Bratt said.Another topic of interest is the frequency of standardized testing, which critics have said takes too much time from the classroom.&quot;Speaking as a student rather than a board member, I do believe that we are pretty heavily reliant on standardized testing,&quot; Bratt said. &quot;For education's sake we need to start to move away from that.&quot;Bratt said more value should be placed on things such as group work and participation grades.'A huge responsibility'In Baltimore County, the student school board position is more than a token spot. Board of Education Chairman Charles McDaniels said he views the students as &quot;co-members.&quot;The students provide insight about emerging fields, such as social media, which wasn't an issue when McDaniels attended school.&quot;There are a number of areas where I think having the student member is just real critical,&quot; McDaniels said.The student member, who must be a junior or senior, is appointed to one term, according to state law.The student member has limited voting rights, according to policy, and does not vote on certain topics, such as personnel matters, union contract negotiations, capital and operating budgets and school openings, closing and boundaries.In Baltimore County, the student member can't attend closed sessions on special-education hearings, employee discipline or collective bargaining, unless a majority of the board members vote to invite the student member.Deeksha Walia, the previous student member, said she was able to vote on 95 percent of issues before the board.&quot;It's a great experience that was kind of eye-opening,&quot; said Walia, now a freshman at the University of Maryland.&quot;It's a huge responsibility making sure you're doing what's best for [students],&quot; Walia said.The National School Boards Association doesn't have up-to-date information about student board members around the country. Its most recent survey was completed in 2009, showing that of 39 states responding to the survey, all have student board members, but only a handful grant voting rights.Bratt said she has already spent 30 hours working on Board of Education issues. She knows it will be a challenge moving forward, as past student members of the board have spent upward of 1,000 hours in a year on board matters, she said.In the brief time Bratt has served — Aug. 9 was her second meeting — she has made a positive impression on her fellow members, Arbutus and Catonsville representative Nick Stewart said.Thinking back to his first board meeting last year, Stewart recalls &quot;a tendency to let things wash by you,&quot; as new members are surrounded by others who have more experience. Bratt didn't let that happen during her first meeting, Stewart said.During a discussion about increasing the frequency of testing at her first meeting in July, Bratt asked what Stewart described as a pointed, commendable question.&quot;Is there any demonstration or data that indicates that the current rate of assessment is not adequate to make changes to teaching curriculum for the next year, or to inform us adequately?&quot; Bratt asked school officials.In response, school officials said teachers have told them that breaks between some assessments were too long.Passion for learningBratt has a perfect 4.0 GPA, and has been secretary for Towson High's student government.&quot;She possesses a strong work ethic and the ability to apply sound reasoning,&quot; Towson High School principal Charlene DiMino said in an email. &quot;As a leader, Aislinn wants the best for all students of Baltimore County Public Schools.&quot;Bratt is passionate about her own education. Math is one of her favorite subjects.&quot;Statistics is definitely my favorite math class, or really my favorite class,&quot; she said &quot;I like the practical application of it. Math is really theoretical, and we don't always see the advanced math that we're doing in practice.&quot;Outside of school, she enjoys painting landscape scenes in oils, particularly of Maryland's Eastern Shore, as well as still lifes, she said.One of her most important extracurricular activities is debate.Her father started a debate company, Capitol Debate, when she was young, she said, and she started debating with that group in third grade. She's been attending debate summer camps since sixth grade, she said.&quot;It's just a really cool way to talk about issues critically,&quot; she said.Debate has taught her how to analyze an issue, she said, and taught her the importance of researching topics; it takes hours of discussion with teammates to prepare for a debate.&quot;You have to think about every possible argument you could come across, because you have 30 seconds in the round to think of what you're going to say, and if you haven't discussed it, you kind of look like a fool,&quot; she said.Debate also has taught Bratt people skills, she said. The type of debate she specializes in is called public forum debate, during which two sides of an issue are presented to a lay judge, an average person who isn't informed on the topic.Part of the debate is learning what line of argument and reasoning will appeal to the judge.Bratt spent much of the summer looking at colleges and preparing for her role as a board member, she said. She hasn't decided on a major, or picked a college, but says a well-rounded education is important.

Baltimore County school board's new student member seeks to give peers "a voice"

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