Santa Rosa Student Council members can be paid and receive academic credit

Amid an ongoing budget crisis and tense labor negotiations in the Santa Rosa City School District, board members are proposing a new budget expense: starting to pay student board members.

The board includes one student: Omé Zuñíga, a senior at Santa Rosa High School and the son of Commissioner Alegría De La Cruz. If the policy passes, he would receive nearly $6,500 a year, plus academic credits.

The board hopes to add another student member to the board, doubling the cost to the district.

“It’s great to have another student on the board,” said Kathryn Howell, president of the Santa Rosa Teachers Association. “The immediate concern is the parity (in pay) between students … the student (board member) certainly gives back to our community, but we have so many students who do.”

The California State Education Code recently changed, allowing students serving on a school board to be paid, receive academic credit, or both.

Howell agrees that students should be recognized for their contributions to the district, but is concerned about the impact on the district’s finances.

Board Chair Omar Medina is leading the change policy. The most important aspect, he says, is the presence of an additional student member on the board, who can provide better representation, better reflect student voices and strengthen shared governance.

“The district’s shared governance model is very much staff and union driven,” Medina said. “Students don’t have as much of a voice. I think this is an opportunity to hear more from students and get more perspectives.”

Medina said the board is likely to make changes to various aspects of the policy and continue the discussion at the next board meeting before voting.

He proposes that student council members now receive academic credits and a monthly stipend. The exact parameters of student compensation have not yet been decided and could change depending on the discussions that take place at tonight’s meeting.

As it stands, the plan would add a student council member from a school east of Highway 101, providing representation for all of Santa Rosa.

There are four schools on the east side (Santa Rosa High School, Ridgway High School, Montgomery High School, and Maria Carrillo High School) and two schools on the west side (Piner High School and Elsie Allen High School).

Howell feared that school boundaries would be more divisive than unifying.

“There’s a fear that it’s going to get worse — we all know there’s segregation in Santa Rosa, both east and west,” Howell said. “By creating a policy like this, it feels like it’s encouraging that division, in a way.”

In this context and given the disparity in the number of schools on either side of Highway 101, Medina is considering a rotation between the six schools in the district.

“A lot of it is about ensuring representation from the west side,” Medina said. “But two (schools) and four (schools) — there’s too much of an imbalance.”

Ultimately, the Teachers Association hopes the board will consider the impact the added cost of paying student members will have on the district, which is already in financial crisis.

“$13,000 is not a huge amount of money, but I’m on a budget advisory committee and we’ve talked about school consolidations,” Howell said. “It really seems crazy that the board would propose another budget expenditure, let alone the ongoing classification dispute.”

Just outside the chamber’s hallways, Santa Rosa’s classified unit — made up of school janitors, cafeteria workers, lunchtime aides and teacher’s aides, to name a few — is expected to continue protesting the impasse in negotiations with the district over staff raises tonight.

The board delayed its raises until December at the earliest, citing the district’s “qualified status,” a label the state assigns when a district may not be able to pay its costs for the current year or the next two fiscal years.

A representative for the classified unit declined to comment on the proposed policy change.

Medina noted the district’s financial difficulties and said the board would consider delaying implementation of the policy until the 2025-26 school year, when finances improve.

“I think the tax aspect is definitely a concern that we need to discuss and figure out what makes the most sense,” Medina said.

The proposed change to current council policy could be put to a vote at tonight’s 5 p.m. council meeting at Santa Rosa City Hall.

Trustees Ever Flores and Ed Sheffield will be absent from tonight’s meeting and Trustee De La Cruz will have to recuse herself from the vote because student council member Zuñíga is her son.

For the updated policy to be adopted, all other directors will need to make a unanimous decision.

Adriana Gutierrez, a Report For America Corps member, covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. You can reach her at [email protected].