Plum Borough students have a voice in their education.
Sitting on the Plum Borough School Board is a student representative. While the role has no voting power, it allows a student to share what is happening in school and allows the students to be aware of any changes to the school itself.
In the role this year is senior Hailey Drapcho. She found out about the position last year through her guidance counselor. The role requires no election from the student body itself, but does require applicants to go through a competitive process. It starts with an application. Some students will then be selected to interview with principal Joe Fishell and assistant principal Michael Gaunter, and then the representative is picked.
“In 2019, we started having a student representative sit on our board as a non-voting member. We have been so fortunate in having three outstanding students to serve in that role, and Hailey is only adding to that tradition. It is so nice and often critical to getting the students’ point of view directly from the students themselves. The decisions the board and the administration make have an impact on them, it is only proper to obtain their feedback,” said Plum Superintendent Brendan Hyland.
Drapcho started on the board at the end of the last school year. Only seniors are allowed to apply for the role and her meeting was considered an introductory meeting for her. She attended her first official meeting in September.Drapcho is looking to major in literature and minor in creative writing post-high school. She has aspirations to become a best-selling author. She even joked, or perhaps hinted that she may start writing a novel while in college.
“I do want to be an author one day,” she added. “However, I know that you have to build up to that. So I plan on being a book editor, unless I come out of college with a best-selling novel then it’s off to the races.”
Besides a book editor, she said she’d like to be an archivist at a museum, as long as it had to do with reading and writing. That’s her passion.
“I read a book a week, which I’m very happy to admit,” said Drapcho. “I’m here in the library everyday and I’ve had people come up to me and they ask me about books because they know that I am the library resource here.
“It’s just really nice to have people come up and be interested in reading because it’s a hobby that not a lot of people have. It’s like, once you get into you delve in deep and I love helping people find that. Because I think when you’re in school, you lose that love sometimes with required readings and having to do questions. To read on your own time, it’s a whole other experience.”
