With remote learning, capacity limits and other COVID compliance regulations as they were, one seat among the Southern Regional Board of Education remained vacant throughout last year, namely the one reserved for the student council president.

As the board took up its business for the first meeting of the new school year on Sept. 8, this year’s council president, Haley Skimmons, claimed the student seat next to Business Administrator and Board Secretary Steve Terhune, and immediately made her…