Audrey Rauh, SRCS Board of Education representative
Audrey Rauh (photo: Audrey Rauh, The Puma Prensa)
By Jasmine Arroyo, business manager
If you were to approach senior Audrey Rauh on any given day of the week, you would likely be met with a warm smile and a bubbly personality that can put even the most anxious minds at ease. She loves the color pink, reading, hiking—and, fun fact— she currently serves as the only student representative for the Santa Rosa City Schools District Board of Education.
Though the phrase goes, “All attention is good attention,” the publicity the SRCSD has received over the past year begs to differ. Multiple incidents concerning student safety and security have subjected the SRCSD to scrutiny by community members. More and more students across the district have stepped up and voiced their concerns at board meetings, but Rauh in particular, has been working alongside the board to amplify these voices.
You may be asking yourself: what is a student board representative, and why didn’t I know this job was available to students? Well, let me explain. The role of student representative is offered to one—and only one— senior out of the seven high schools in the district each year. Each school year, the selected school switches in a cyclical and ordered pattern between the seven schools to ensure equal opportunity. Therefore, Carrillo students get their turn once every seven years a Fortunately, Piner High School handed the torch off to our seniors for the 2023-2024 school year, and after extensive interviewing with board members, Rauh was selected for the role. She now represents Carrillo and over 10,000 SRCS district secondary students in the district.
Few students know that Rauh sits on the board, much less her meeting-to-meeting responsibilities. Like our council members, Rauh receives the same information, data, and emails to ensure she stays current with topics the board is set to discuss at their bimonthly meetings. She has also been assigned to present safety reports from district-wide student data in front of the board. I was most surprised to learn that Rauh has a vote on the board, meaning that she has the power to reflect student voices in a way that can influence their day-to-day life.
Representing every student’s voice in Sonoma County’s largest school district is certainly an enormous task at hand, but Rauh is not somebody to back down from the challenge. “I was drawn to the opportunity to not just voice my opinion but also listen to students and have a platform to reach out”, said Rauh. Now, nearly six months into the school year, Rauh has gotten the hang of the job.
Rauh encourages students to stay informed on topics that the school board discusses. Though she acknowledges that some topics may receive little public attention, students should know what issues are being discussed. “Safety wasn't the first thing on my mind when I first went into it, but now it's the issue that resonates the most with me- the one I take to heart the most.” For Rauh, and a large proportion of the district, student safety is a hot topic. Through student involvement and with the support of parents and SRCS staff, strides have been made to create a safe environment for all SRCS students. Rauh has gotten a front-seat view —quite literally— of these efforts.
Still, not many students on campus have talked to Rauh about issues they believe deserve attention—probably because they are unaware they can. “We get a new program or new class and everyone has a lot of opinions, and I hear about a lot of them, but I also see a lot of them going nowhere”, said Rauh.
Having the SRCS student representative on campus gives Carrillo students the opportunity to have their opinions reflected and represented by fellow student, which can be a challenge to achieve through public comment at board meetings. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your opinion at a board meeting, having a conversation with our friendly campus student representative is a great place to start.
“I have a title, I have a purpose, and I would love to talk to you.”