For the first time, two high school students participated in the school board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Along with the North Kitsap Board of Directors, Zane Ravenholt and Jack Wall sat alongside the directors during the first half of the meeting and gave short presentations on both positive and negative issues they have seen so far this school year. The students are not paid for their participation on the board.

The students were chosen as a way to better inform the directors about things that students are concerned about, such as large class sizes at Kingston High School – which Ravenholt brought up – said Schools Superintendent Rick Jones.

“They will basically be the voice of the students at our meetings,” Jones said.

Wall is a senior at North Kitsap High School and the class president for this year and Ravenholt, also a senior, is the ASB president at Kingston High.

Along with the concerns they voiced, Wall said the issue surrounding the North Kitsap sports team’s suspensions – which occurred after students were caught drinking at a party via Facebook – has upset many students at North that were not involved.

“There are a lot of students who were not even around the party that have been hurt by this,” Wall said at the meeting. “We need to encourage people to continue to go to our sporting events.”

The directors have worked on getting students on the board since last year, and many expressed how please they are to have student voices among them.

“This is something we have wanted to do for a long time,” Board of Director Tom Anderson said at the meeting.