Harford County Board of Education student member James McVicker III proposed legislation during a Monday work session to give the county’s student school board member expanded voting rights.

The proposed legislation would have to be approved via the Maryland General Assembly, not the local school board, but McVicker said Monday he was seeking the board’s support in pushing the matter through.

Currently student board members in Harford can vote on minor items such as the consent agenda, but not major decisions such as the public school system’s calendar or budget.

McVicker has two different proposals. One would allow a student board member to vote on the school system’s calendar, curriculum and budget. The second would only allow the student to vote on the calendar and curriculum. He said he understands that a bill allowing students to vote on the district’s budget may be more difficult to pass in the General Assembly.

“We have a better chance of one or the other going through instead of one piece, like budget, compromising the entire bill going forward,” he told the board.

Currently, state law prohibits student members from voting on matters involving employee discipline, appointment and promotion, student suspension, calendar and curriculum, and budgetary matters. McVicker’s proposal includes allowing Harford County’s student members to vote on appeals that are not listed under “exceptions” in Maryland law.

It includes provisions to allow the school board to vote on a case-by-case basis to determine whether or not a student member’s vote should be excluded from specific decisions.

The version of the legislation including budget matters would give student members the ability to vote on the budget only after they complete a budget training. The training would focus on operating capital budgets and be facilitated by representatives of Harford County Public Schools and the Department of Business Services.

McVicker said the recent school board decision to remove the book “Flamer” from school libraries is an example of a case when a student vote would have been important. If his proposed legislation was already in effect, it would have allowed him to attend and vote on the appeals process regarding the book’s removal, as well as allowed his vote to count when the board decided to appeal the state’s decision to the circuit court.

McVicker said the proposal was also initiated by last year’s student school board member Sasha Pazoki, who began the conversation but didn’t bring it in front of state legislators.

One or both of the proposed bills would need to be sponsored by a delegate or senator, McVicker said. It would then need to be voted on by both sides of the county’s delegation. Once approved, it would collectively be sponsored by the Harford County delegation and would go to the full General Assembly for final approval.

McVicker said a state legislator has agreed to to sponsor the bill, but he did not disclose who.

According to Del. Teresa Reilly, who represents Harford and Cecil counties, Harford’s school board doesn’t have jurisdiction over these proposed changes as all school boards are regulated through Maryland State Code.

“Only the Maryland General Assembly has the authority to change anything within this code,” Reilly said in an email.

The Harford school board would play more of a supportive role in the legislative process, McVicker said. On Monday, he asked board members to write a letter and speak with legislators to get the measures moving forward. Board members didn’t explicitly state if they would support the bills, but school board President Aaron Poynton said he would discuss writing a letter with other board members.

McVicker’s proposal comes amid a statewide push in recent years to expand student school board members’ voting rights. In 2022, Maryland’s highest court ruled against an attempt to limit the voting power of the student member for the Howard County Board of Education.

Two Howard County parents who filed the lawsuit said they felt allowing the student members to vote violated the state’s constitution, as most student members are under 18. The courts ruled that there was a difference in school board voting and regular election voting, and allowing student members to vote on the school board gave them an opportunity to have a voice in their education.

Student members on the Harford Board of Education serve one-year terms. They must be seniors in high school and are selected by the Harford County Regional Association of Student Councils. McVicker is a senior at Harford Tech High School studying cyber security.

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