Jul 22, 2025

Article #5 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume XII, Number Three, September 2025

The Latest Ineffective Student Representatives: 

Lyn Ampey and Isaiah Martin

 

The MPS Board of Education first appointed a student representative in 2015, then in 2022 added a second representative with the stated goal of expanding student opportunity for expressing student viewpoints.  Current student representatives Lyn Ampey and Isaih Martin take turns being the primary speaker at Board meetings and meet regularly with board staff to prepare for meetings and coordinate other duties.

 

Lyn Ampey

 

Lyn Ampey

Student.Representative@mpsedu.org

Term:  February 2025-December 2025


Lyn Ampey is a junior at Southwest High School, where she Lyn started a club pertinent to medical careers.  At Southwest, Ampey is a member of National Honor Society, the Black Student Union, the school Site Council.

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The Student Representatives provide an important perspective and give voice to those at the heart of the district’s work: MPS students. The Board of Education has appointed a student representative since 2015, and beginning in 2022, the addition of a second student representative was made with the goal of expanding student view and opinion. 

 

Ampey, along with the other 2024 student representative, Isiah Martin, will take turns being the primary speaker at Board meetings but will still be responsible for keeping up on what's happening by reviewing materials and watching meeting videos when not in attendance. Additionally, the two will meet regularly together with board staff to prepare for meetings and coordinate other duties.

 

Isaiah Martin

 

Isaiah Martin

Student.Representative@mpsedu.org

Term:  February 2025-December 2025


Isiah Martin is a junior at Camden High School, where he is part of organizations including Camden Beacons Leadership Team (BLT), Good Trouble, and Student Council.  He has been part of the “Change the Name” movement that replaced the name Patrick Henry with Camden, and is working to develop a new mascot.  Martin is a Teen Tech agent at a Hennepin County Library and has given testimony on public school issues at the Minnesota State Capitol.

 

 

Gary Marvin Davison Critique of Lyn Ampey and Isaiah Martin as Student Representatives on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

 

Student representatives are chronically ineffective, and these representatives are no exception.

 

Lyn Ampey’s attendance in erratic and her comments spare in the extreme.

 

Martin is more voluble, but his comments, while usually pertinent to the topic under consideration do not go to the core vexations of the Minneapolis Public Schools and other iterations of the locally centralized school district as to curriculum and teacher quality.

 

These young people gain experience in civic participation by serving as student representatives, but they make no substantive difference via that participation.

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