Deanna Rafla-Yuan, who will be a senior at Piner High School next year, has been selected as the student board member for the Santa Rosa School Board for the 2010-11 school year.

Student board members attend all school board meetings but are excluded from closed sessions.  The student board member may cast a “preferential vote” on all items except for those related to closed session items. The preferential votes do not affect the board’s final vote but are recorded in meeting minutes.

They are not compensated for their time.

Rafla-Yuan was nominated by Piner teachers and selected from a panel of six people, including four current student body presidents from Elsie Allen, Carrillo, Montgomery and Piner, as well as Piner principal Mary Beth Halsey and assistant superintendent Anastasia Zita.

The school board confirmed the choice Wednesday night.

“It’s going to be a fun year,” President Bill Carle said. A comment which earned knowing laughs from the small audience. The district could face $11 million in cuts in the coming year.

Rafla-Yuan replaces Montgomery High School senior Rena Wang who graduates Friday. She heads to Harvard in the fall.