Philomath High School incoming senior Wyatt Coen was sworn in Thursday evening as the newest student representative on the Philomath School Board and Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday says she’s optimistic about what his dual role in student government could bring to the position.
Coen, who will serve as Associated Student Body co-president alongside senior Lora Theurer this coming academic year, joins a role that’s given students a formal, if nonvoting, seat at the table since 2022. He said the position appealed to him partly because he’d already be attending board meetings to deliver ASB reports.
“I figured I might as well make the most of it and at least try to get the position, and I ended up getting it,” he said.
Halliday said having a student representative who’s also embedded in ASB leadership is a first for the position.
“It will be nice to have that kind of a connection for the first time, to be able to have somebody that’s walking in both paths,” she said. “I love having the student voice.”
The superintendent also pointed to a broader effort she’s hoping to continue pursuing this year — connecting Philomath’s student board representative with peers serving in the same role at other Oregon districts.
“We’ve talked with the Oregon School Boards Association about can we set up some kind of an arena for just student school board members to be able to talk to one another and talk about what they can do and how they can help and how they can be an effective force and just allow them the opportunity to talk to each other,” Halliday said. “I was sorry we didn’t get that working last year but I’m hopeful that we can continue it this year.”
Coen, who served on the ASB executive council last year as what he described as a secondary vice president, said he’s still getting oriented to his new duties.
“Honestly, at this moment, I couldn’t tell you,” he said when asked about his main responsibilities. “I’ve gotten a couple of emails, I looked them over, but so far I’m just going to see what they need me to do.”
Coen said he expects to follow the lead of last year’s student liaison by gathering input from classmates through surveys and email outreach. While he doesn’t have a specific issue in mind to bring to the board yet, one theme has stuck with him from talking to fellow students.
“The students want school to be more than schoolwork, they want there to be more stuff going on,” he said.
As with past student representatives, Coen will be barred from voting and from attending closed executive sessions. He follows Jackson Holroyd, Raegan McKinney, Levi Storch, Maggy Real and Laney Thomas in the role since it was created in the fall of 2022.
To me, giving PHS students a seat at the board table is about more than one meeting a month. It’s a small but real way of preparing them to participate in a democratic society, making them part of a local governing process rather than just subject to it. Whatever a student rep goes on to do with their life, that experience with leadership and community service can leave a mark.
The nonvoting nature of the role doesn’t make it a token position. Student reps still get to speak on the record on issues that matter, sometimes on weighty topics, and they may well be nudging their peers toward greater involvement in school life simply by showing up and taking the role seriously.
For board members, it’s a chance to hear directly from the population most affected by their decisions before they make them — a perspective that no amount of public testimony from adults can fully replace.
2. Robot vandalism
A Philomath company’s sidewalk-surveying robots became the target of vandalism in Hollister, California, in late May incidents, according to KSBW Action News reporter Ricardo Tovar.
Daxbot, which designs and builds the robots at its Philomath headquarters, had recently deployed units in Hollister to assess sidewalk and curb ramp accessibility when two separate vandalism incidents occurred within the robots’ first week on the job.
In one case, a man on a bicycle knocked a robot onto its side and rode off. In another, someone struck two robots — including one that was recording the encounter — and poured what appeared to be beer on one of the units, Tovar reported.
Hollister police said they arrested two men on May 30 in unrelated contacts, later identifying each as a suspect in one of the vandalism incidents.
The robots, funded by Hollister through a federal grant, move at walking speed and don’t collect personal data, police said in the story, encouraging residents to give them space to work.
Daxbot’s robots are familiar to most of us here in Philomath with technology testing taking place on our streets. According to the company’s website, a single robot can survey 6 to 7 miles of sidewalk a day, compared with roughly 2 miles for a two-person manual crew.
The robots were expected to remain in Hollister for several weeks before moving on once the assessment is complete.
3. Busy week
Philomath Community Services had one of its busiest weeks last month, according to Sharon Thornberry, Philomath Community Services executive director.
Nancy’s Food Pantry served 93 households across two distribution days — 39 on Tuesday, June 16, and 54 on Thursday, June 18 — with four additional households receiving produce only. June’s Kids Kloset, which provides clothing and other essentials for children, helped 34 households over the same period.
The organization also took part in Oregon State University’s annual move-out donation program, which redirects usable items discarded by departing students to local nonprofits instead of the landfill. That effort brought in enough donated goods to serve 38 households.
Thornberry credited volunteers for meeting the surge in demand, but said the organization now needs more help staffing June’s Kids Kloset, along with continued food and financial donations.
More information on Nancy’s Food Pantry and June’s Kids Kloset is available at philomathcommunityservices.org.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
