The votes are in, and St. Mary’s public schools students have elected Leonardtown High School junior Hannah Heisler as the next student member of the board of education.
The St. Mary’s Association of Student Councils, consisting of students from each public high school in the county, voted for Heisler at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center on Feb. 8. Heisler ran for the 2024-2025 school year position unopposed and will take office on July 1.
“Hannah has achieved remarkable academic success and has shown exceptional leadership and a strong work ethic,” Leonardtown High School Principal James Copsey said in a release. Heisler’s “commitment to student advocacy makes her an outstanding candidate” for the position.
Heisler is the current president of SMASC and the Leonardtown High School Student Government Association. She also participates in her school’s theater group, chamber choir, mock trial club, National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society and is enrolled in the school’s Academy of Global and International Studies.
“Both of my parents are teachers, so I’ve grown up seeing that aspect of the educational system,” Heisler said. “I’ve grown up in a household where education is very important and I feel like that’s what led me to having an interest in being the student member of the board.”
Heisler was also inspired to run for the position after meeting previous student members of the board when she was in elementary and middle school.
“She was just such an inspiration at that point,” Heisler said of a previous student member of the board she met years ago. “I just really wanted to provide that voice for students.”
Heisler plans on addressing teacher retention in the county as well as students’ concerns when she takes her seat on the board this summer. She plans on meeting with students at each school in the county, including fifth graders at elementary schools, to understand what issues students are looking for her to bring attention to at the local school board.
“The only way to truly see how the board’s actions actually impact the students is through the students,” Heisler said. “The student member’s role is to be in touch with those students and to see the impact that the board’s policies are making on them and relay that information back to the board.”
In 2022, Maryland lawmakers introduced both House and Senate bills to allow Maryland student members of local school boards to become official members of the board, allowing them to have some voting rights. Both bills failed to pass.
Seven counties in the state offer limited voting rights for their student members allowing them to vote on specific issues. Anne Arundel County is the only Maryland jurisdiction to grant the student member full voting rights. All other counties, including St. Mary’s, do not allow student members to officially vote with their board member counterparts.
“Unfortunately we do not have a voting right now, but we do get a voice and we do get to sit at the table, so I plan on utilizing my voice to its full ability,” Heisler said.
Heisler will replace the current student member of the board, Lillian Kibler, a senior at Leonardtown High.
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