Board Gets Fresh View From Inside

Brittany Clark leads drug education classes at local schools and volunteers with foster children. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

If high-schoolers Veronica Ferrell and Brittany Clark have their way, leaky ceilings and broken air conditioners in Washington public schools are headed the way of the slide rule and the Trapper Keeper.

The complaints are common among students of all ages, but Ferrell and Clark will have the unique chance to make sure that top school officials actually listen. As the new student representatives on the D.C. Board of Education, they will be responsible for communicating the interests of their peers.

Although the two have yet to talk with each other about the issues they'll take to the school board, their lists of priorities are strikingly similar. In separate conversations, Ferrell listed broken water fountains, decaying ceilings, a shortage of books and bad-tasting lunches, and Clark highlighted the poor nutritional value of cafeteria food, broken air-conditioning systems and problems with ceilings.

"Brittany and me together hopefully can do something about it for all the other students," said Ferrell, a 17-year-old rising senior at Spingarn Senior High School.

Although the list of things to be remedied is lengthy, both students are taking their new authority in stride.

"I wasn't sure about speaking in front of people, but then I found out that I really like speaking in public," said Clark, 16, a rising junior at Cardozo Senior High School. "I want to do the students proud and show them I can handle this."

The students were nominated to serve on the board by a teacher and then elected by their peers.

"I was a little nervous about it at first," Ferrell said. "I wasn't sure that I would be right for such a big role, but if I don't believe in myself, who else will?"

Clark and Ferrell both have student council experience, and Ferrell will be secretary of her senior class while working on the board. Both said they were a bit worried about the time commitment necessary to do the job well, but each added that school board work would be her top extracurricular priority.

"They gave me this huge notebook of all the rules and regulations, so I've been catching up on stuff I need to know," Clark said.

The opportunity to learn more about how the school system works was the major factor that attracted Clark to the job. She is especially interested in learning how funding works and how officials decide which buildings to renovate.

Ferrell, who has served in student government since elementary school, said younger people have a better grasp than elected officials on what schools need.

"Adults don't understand what it's like to be a kid these days," she said. "A lot of schools have problems, and that's what everybody's talking about in the halls, but sometimes the adults don't notice."

Between her roles on the school board and class council and her other extracurricular activities, Ferrell's face will be prominent around the Spingarn campus. She plays center on the varsity basketball team, is a hurdler on the track team and might join the volleyball team as well. She's looking for a paying job for the fall and will be working on applications to the University of North Carolina and Harvard.

Clark's spare time is spent leading drug education classes at local schools, volunteering with foster children and taking engineering classes through Metro's TransTech program at Cardozo.

She is an excellent English student, wants to attend Claflin University in South Carolina and is considering a career as a broadcast journalist.

Both girls have a cadre of family members and friends who will be rooting for them at school board meetings. "People listen to her, and she always gets her point across," said Ferrell's best friend, Woodson Senior High School student Alisha Powells. "She's got very good leadership skills."

Taxpayers should be happy to have the students on the board as well, Clark's mother, Brenda, said.

"Kids these days are a lot wiser than when I was growing up," she said. "Adults should start listening."