South Middle School student Eli Zerr selected to bring Grand Forks perspective to state superintendent's Student Cabinet

Mar. 3—At a time when student voices may be more important than ever, a Grand Forks teen is stepping forward to help state leaders gain insight and guide the direction of educational policy for North Dakota schools.

Eli Zerr, 14, an eighth-grade student at South Middle School, has been selected as one of 23 students throughout the state to serve on North Dakota State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler's Student Cabinet. The panel, which will begin meeting this month, will provide Baesler with advice and opinions on how to improve the state's schools and the direction of state education policy.

Baesler founded the Cabinet in April 2015. This is the fourth group to be assembled since she was elected state school superintendent in 2012. The new members range in age from a third-grader to two high school seniors.

Zerr is the only student in northeastern North Dakota to be selected. Members serve for about 18 months and usually meet every three months, although meetings have been more frequent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.

"It has been especially important to hear from the Cabinet members during the pandemic," Baesler said. "They have provided essential information and details about how COVID-19 has affected education in their schools."

Zerr, who heard about the Cabinet from a family friend, was especially motivated to apply when he learned that no one from Grand Forks had served in the last Cabinet and he didn't know anyone who had applied for this one.

Zerr wanted to join because, as a student, "I enjoy trying to improve the educational system," he said. "Obviously I'm a student, so I have an interest in that. And I also think this is a good thing to do for the community and for other students."

"And also I like to solve problems so, as someone who is a student seeing things that are going on that might not be noticed by administrators or teachers, I feel like I can bring something to the table in that regard," he said.

Applicants for Student Cabinet positions were asked to write answers to several questions, including a request to "describe a challenge facing students in school today" and "what is one thing you think your state superintendent needs to know about your school?"

The applications were reviewed and scored by a team of state Department of Public Instruction employees outside the superintendent's office.

Resources for learning

In his application, Zerr wrote that school administrators need to ensure every student has what he or she needs, especially since remote learning has become more prevalent during the pandemic, he said.

In response to a question about one physical element the student would change at their school, Zerr said the resources that are available for distance learning "are really poor — and the teachers are doing their best, but it's just not there."

For example, when the Grand Forks school system pivoted to distance learning last March, and again for several weeks in December, "the internet couldn't keep up — because all the teachers were at school, we were at home — so none of us could get on our Zoom sessions (for days). They fixed that, thankfully."

"With distance learning becoming the bigger thing, this is a problem that needs to be addressed, in terms of making sure every student has what they need and that the school can cope with it," he said.

Measures taken to protect the health of students and staff members for in-person learning during the pandemic "have been spotty, but I think they're doing a good job of preventing COVID transmission in the schools," said Zerr, noting that masks must be worn throughout the school day. "It's definitely a different experience though."

Students 'not engaged'

Regarding a challenge that students are facing, Zerr sees potential for teachers to be more effective, and he said so in his application.

"Students are not interested, they're not engaged, so something is obviously not working. And, what I elaborated on is, I think they can be engaged, because I've had teachers, in the past, who have been really good at engaging students, and it's about the way they seem to deliver the content.

"It's interesting to watch other kids — when they're sitting in class and they're thinking, 'why am I here? This is useless, I don't want to be here' — and then they have, like, this moment where they realize how this thing we might be talking about in class connects to other things and they get really interested in it.

"So, simply put, I said, the challenge facing students is they're not interested and currently the system doesn't really help them get interested."

He'd like to see more teachers effectively engage students. Also, Zerr wants Baesler to be aware of the "uniqueness" of South Middle School, he said.

"What a lot of people don't realize about South is that it's a very diverse student body — and that's kind of unusual for around here. Not everybody recognizes that at South, but it's a really good thing that we have that.

"It gives you different perspectives, so it's not just all kids who come from similar backgrounds, right? You get to know people from different backgrounds from you and you can empathize with them and get to know about, maybe, different cultures."

In his work with the Student Cabinet, Zerr wants to learn and grow.

"I hope to gain leadership skills, to understand better our educational system here in North Dakota by getting more information," he said, "and I hope I have stuff that I can contribute."

Cabinets "have been an invaluable source of information and advice about what is good about our schools, and how things can be better," Baesler said in a news release. "They have made their mark in improving education policy in North Dakota."