Oswego trustees are looking at involving youth in the village’s Cultural Arts, Economic Development and Historic Preservation commissions by having students serve as non-voting members of the panels.
“If we were to approve this, we should act quickly to coincide with the school year to get students up to speed. We probably would want to begin the application process before school lets out,” Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said in a report to trustees.
No vote has been taken yet on the proposal.
Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman suggested staff members develop some of the parameters of a program that would have one student from each high school serve as a non-voting member of the three committees.
The administration has since consulted with Oswego-based school District 308 Superintendent Andalib Khelghati about the idea and reviewed a similar program in Naperville.
The superintendent thought including students on advisory commissions was a great idea, Di Santo said.
Khelghati offered to have the district help in the selection process of students for the commissions and supported the idea of including one student from each high school, the village administrator said.
Kauffman said he’s pleased to hear District 308’s superintendent is on board with the idea.
“This furthers our collaboration with the school district, gets kids involved and increases our involvement in the community at-large,” Kauffman said. “I think it is a win-win all the way around.”
District 308 already involves student members on its boards, Di Santo said.
Some of the proposed parameters for the village program would require students be residents of Oswego and that they attend 75% of scheduled meetings.
Oswego Trustee Jennifer Jones Sinnott also suggested the village designate a day out of the year for Oswego students to shadow village department heads.
“It would be a great opportunity if we could potentially look at a career day. I think it would be super cool to involve both high schools and have students shadow staff,” Jones Sinnott said.
“There are a lot of opportunities to engage and spark some excitement for kids,” she said.
The village as far back as 1999 considered the idea of a Youth Commission to involve students. However, it did not move forward with the idea at that time.
Assigning student representatives to village advisory commissions is an alternative idea to get young people involved in government, village officials said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
