Submitted Photo Makayla Kraft, left, and Isabelle Graham, right, are the new student members of the Gowanda Board of Education.

GOWANDA — Plenty of school districts refer to their school community as a family. At Gowanda, two prominent roles on its Board of Education actually are in the same family.

Makayla Kraft and Isabelle Graham, seniors at Gowanda High School, were recently appointed as student board members. Isabelle Graham is the daughter of Max Graham, the President of the Board of Education.

The two new members took their official oath of office at a recent Board of Education meeting. They will serve as non-voting members for the 2025-2026 academic year. Their role will be to represent the student body, while learning the roles, duties and responsibilities of being on a school board.

Madison Luder and Lani Farley served as student members of the Board in 2022-2023, followed by Autumn Pupo in 2023-2024. This past school year, Molly Bowers and Sydney Smith served as student representatives on the Board.

The new Board members were in attendance for more discussion surrounding the district’s recently proposed Capital Project. A focal point of the discussion was surrounding the multi-purpose turf field, designed as a lacrosse field with various other uses.

Business Administrator Barb Smith stated that she and Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson were two of the loudest voices in favor of the turf field, rather than upgrading the tennis courts or other outdoor campus improvements, because of the various uses the field could provide and the wide range of students that could benefit from a turf field year-round. Voters will likely be asked to decide on a finalized Capital Project proposal within the upcoming school year.

Unrelated to the upcoming proposal, the emergency repair project pertaining to the district pool moved forward at the recent meeting, as the Board of Education approved a series of bids to the base level of the project.