Skip to content

Student trustee Jessica Carroll sworn in

As has become a new tradition, a nascent politician was sworn in to officially assume the role of student trustee for School District 46 (SD46) at the first board meeting of the school year.
Jessica Carroll
Jessica Carroll opens a gift from SD46 board chair Pammila Ruth on behalf of the board. Carroll was sworn in as the new student trustee for the Sunshine Coast school district on Sept. 11.

As has become a new tradition, a nascent politician was sworn in to officially assume the role of student trustee for School District 46 (SD46) at the first board meeting of the school year.

This year that role went to 17-year-old Roberts Creeker Jessica Carroll.

“She will be our student voice and representative at our table and we are extremely pleased to have you here with us,” said board chair Pammila Ruth before Carroll took the oath of office.

While Carroll cannot vote at the board table, she is expected to deliver a monthly report and views the role as “a direct connection from the student body to the administration.”

The District Student Leadership Team (DSLT), a group of students representing the district’s high schools, elected the Grade 12 Elphinstone Secondary School student to the role last spring. Carroll expects to vet issues through that group. “We talk to teachers one-on-one and each month we have a theme and we try to make a survey and do something about it,” said Carroll.

While it’s still early days into her tenure, Carroll told Coast Reporter that student mental health will be a focus – an issue also raised by the DSLT. Another issue she expects to address is one that her predecessor Nicholas Davis confronted last year: student strikes for action on climate change.

Carroll, who is a member of Elphinstone Secondary’s environmental club, said she hopes the DSLT can support student environmental groups, while also acknowledging her position as an elected official at the board table.

“I have to know exactly what I support because on the one hand it’s a privilege to go to school,” said Carroll, “but on the other hand, [holding climate strikes is all that students] can do to make people notice… That’s the one thing we have in common.”

During the Sept. 11 SD46 board meeting superintendent Patrick Bocking also introduced the district’s new strategic plan and a proposal to create an environmental action plan – a move Carroll supports in principle.

“It’s great that we’re actually taking steps towards fighting climate change,” she said. “The students who are passionate about fighting climate change, I think they’re going to notice we’re taking action on the board level… It’s better than doing nothing.”