Ten semifinalists – including one each from Oak Grove, Purvis and Petal – are candidates for the Mississippi State Board of Education junior student representative in the 2020-21 school year.
Among the 10 candidates are Oak Grove High School’s Hans Elasri, Purvis High School’s Andee Robertson and Petal High School’s Weston “Archer” Taylor.
The SBE student representative program includes one high school junior and one high school senior who serve as non-voting SBE members and provide input on policy decisions that affect Mississippi public schools. The current junior SBE representative, Omar Jamil of DeSoto County Schools, will serve as the senior representative in 2020-21.
The eligible applicant pool for the rising junior representative included 23 students. Up to four finalists will be chosen for junior representative after interviews.
Student representatives are responsible for attending monthly SBE meetings and any standing committees or subcommittees to which they are assigned. Student representatives are excused from school to attend SBE meetings as official school business.
The SBE adopted a policy in 2018 outlining the criteria for adding student representatives to the State Board.
The other semifinalist candidates are Hannah Carson of Hatley High School; Christian Dunne, Amy Zhang, and April Guo-Yue, all of Starkville High School; Zion Johnson of Columbus High School; Wykendrick Jones of Heidelberg High School; and Anna Lafferty of Lafayette High School.