Somers board appoints two students as ex officio members for 2025-26

The Somers Central School District Board of Education appointed Jimmy Gallivan and Ali Westhouse to serve as ex officio student members of the board for the 2025–26 school year, subject to the requirements of district policy 2245.

Board members approved the appointments on the superintendent’s recommendation. The board said the students were selected through a procedures process in which candidates applied and were interviewed; the transcript reported that “Pete Rodriguez and Bridal O’Shea” developed the procedures and presented recommended candidates to the superintendent, who forwarded the recommendation to the board.

Board members said they plan to rotate responsibilities and to provide onboarding for the students. One board member noted that Gallivan was also re-elected student council president; another board member said of Westhouse, “She seems lovely,” when the appointment was announced. The board unanimously approved the appointments by voice vote as recorded in the meeting: “All in favor? Aye.” Individual roll-call votes were not read into the public record.

The appointments were explicitly made “subject to the requirements of policy 2245,” which the board referenced when reading the resolution into the record. The district did not provide further detail in the meeting transcript about the students’ expected duties, stipend (if any) or voting rights; as ex officio members, the appointment language indicates student participation on the board but the transcript did not specify whether the ex officio members have voting privileges.

The board indicated staff will follow up with onboarding steps for the students before the start of the 2025–26 school year.