Alexandra Bennett is the new student representative on the South Fayette school board
SOUTH FAYETTE – Upcoming South Fayette High School senior Alexandra Bennett is already booked on the third and fourth Tuesdays of the month for the next nine months or so.
Bennett will be spending those Tuesday evenings with the nine members of the South Fayette School Board in the district’s Pride Room. The reason? She is the school board’s new student representative, taking over from Julian Pikhras, who graduated in the spring.
“I wanted to learn about the decision-making that’s going on with the school,” Bennett explained.
The district has had a student representative on the board since 2010. While they cannot vote or sit in closed-door executive sessions where personnel or legal matters are discussed, they have a ringside seat to the decisions that board members make on hiring, curriculum, budgets and all the other issues within their purview.
Students at South Fayette’s high school interested in serving on the board go through an application process. For the 2019-20 school year, Bennett was tapped not just because she has managed to get excellent grades throughout her tenure at South Fayette High School, but she also has superior leadership ability, according to Laura Hartzell, principal at the high school.
“I think she’s a fantastic addition,” Hartzell said. “She’s done a wonderful job so far.”
A member of several organizations at South Fayette High School, including National Honor Society and student government, Bennett’s favorite academic subjects are history and social studies. An avid reader, she recently started digging into the “Harry Potter” novels, and also takes dance classes in her off hours. She eventually would like to make her way to Georgetown University’s law school, but before then is seriously looking at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., or Emory University in Atlanta. She is considering majoring in economics or business or some combination of the two as an undergraduate.
Though she has only been the student representative at a few meetings so far, she has been impressed by how the board arrives at decisions.
“Even though they may disagree, they work it out,” she said. “It’s so interesting.”