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Ripon Unified gives students a say in RUSD deliberations
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Claire Wever is the student representative to the Ripon Unified school board.
She was voted to that position last spring by the Ripon High student body.
During this month’s meeting, board President Kit Oase pointed out Wever’s role during the open sessions held in the Council Chambers.
“You’re allowed to vote (on all agenda items),” he said to the RHS junior. “This allows for your voice to be heard but not counted as a formal vote.”
The five-person elected board, in this case, accounts for the actual tally during the voting procedure.
The student board member has been in place since 2011 as way of strengthening communications between the school board and district students.
Ripon is among the districts that have embraced high school students electing a representative to serve as their representative for a year to the school board. Manteca Unified doesn’t have a student elected representative sit on the actual board with the ability to participate in discussions although not closed door matters involving personnel, students discipline and such. Manteca Unfired does have representatives form each of its high schools that attend meetings to provide reports of what is going on at their campuses.
The post was created in 2008 by the Ripon Unified School board on the urging of then ASB President Michael Merchant. Michelle Ambrose was the first-ever to hold the post.  Wever took over from Eleanor Waters.
Wever has continued on the tradition of providing input during deliberations. Representing all students, she can also facilitate the discussion of all sides of issues.
In addition, she provides updates to the board on what’s happening at RHS.
Robeson gave Wever the honors of presenting Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal that calls for $5.4 billion of the $71.6 billion to go towards public education.
He’s also calling for an increase of $2.8 billion to the Local Control Funding Formula not to mention a $368 per ADA – including all funding sources – boost.