Both the Kenai and Soldotna City Councils have student representatives.
For Kenai, it’s Xinlan Tanner; for Soldotna, it’s Noble Cassidy.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough has none. However, during the assembly meeting on Tuesday, April 2nd, Vice President Tyson Cox suggested that maybe it’s time to consider a change in the future.
“When people come on to the assembly, a lot of times they’ll ask why don’t we have a student representative? I can tell you right now, I think that’d be very difficult for us to have,” said Tyson Cox. “But what my idea is is to put it a presentation period right before the regular presentations, where we have two 10-minute presentations to do a 10-minute presentation for the student council. ”
Cox believes there are five schools right now that have student councils and would like to find out if others in the area are interested in participating in this type of opportunity. From his knowledge, Seward, Homer, Nikiski, Soldotna, and Kenai are potential options.
This would be an invitation to those schools to come in and speak. It would an item that would be listed on the agenda only when it’s happening.
“I think it’s important to have those kids be able to come and do that. We’re seeing some of these kids wanting to do that. If you’ve gotten to the schoolboards at all lately, Soldotna has been very involved in that way. And I think some of these other kids might be if they really feel that there’s an opening for them. And then if there’s schools that aren’t prepared or don’t want to, they don’t have to, it’s not a forced thing. It’s not anything you may even have to do. But I’m looking to put that together,” said Cox.
The vice president did ask that any suggestions or idea be run through the city clerk.
If this concept were to be implemented, it would not begin until next year. It would also only be for nine months out of the year, considering that school is out during the summer.