Irvine Student Named to State Education Board : Appointment: Heather Clayton, 17, of University High hopes to ‘bring the insight and, of course, the firsthand perspective of a student’ to the panel. She is chosen by Gov. Wilson from among 200 candidates.

IRVINE —  As the governor’s newest appointment to the State Board of Education, Heather Clayton’s strongest asset may be her insight into the problems that face California’s students.

In fact, she doesn’t just empathize with students. She is a student.

The 17-year-old honor roll student at University High School in Irvine was appointed Friday by Gov. Pete Wilson to the State Board of Education. Upon Senate confirmation of her post, Clayton will have full voting privileges for one year. One slot on the board is permanently reserved for a student member.

“There are so many groups trying to have their say when it comes to education, and I think I can bring the insight and, of course, the firsthand perspective of a student,” Clayton said in an interview on Friday.

Clayton, an articulate, popular junior who has been active in student politics since her freshman year, was chosen from about 200 candidates throughout California who had been nominated by their school principals.

The teen-ager said she is “totally excited” about the role because she finds the issues facing the state board “fascinating.”

“I don’t have a specific agenda,” she said. “I would pretty much be open-minded and deal with each issue that comes up. I tend to be pretty conservative on most issues, but I take one issue at a time.”

Clayton joins the board at a time when education is facing troubled times in California, with unprecedented budget woes, escalating concerns over violence and gangs in schools and a vacancy in the role of state superintendent.

“I think the biggest problem facing schools is they are basically asked to perform a miracle these days,” said Clayton, the second oldest in a family of seven children. “They have to take kids who have relatively little impact from outside sources, except the media, and teach them to be responsible contributors to society. They have to be the psychologists and the teachers and prepare them for work, and that’s a lot to ask of the schools. I think it can be done, but it will take creative education.”

She called the issue of how to handle gangs and guns in schools “a really tough one.”

“I would target the parents and the teachers,” she said. “One of the problems education is facing is lack of involvement by the parents. If we can pull those parents into more involvement with their kids, that would solve a lot of problems.

“Also,” she said, “the teachers need to be trained in this day and age to deal with ethnic tensions. Kids these days aren’t coming to school just for reading, writing and arithmetic. They are coming to school to learn life skills down the road.”

Clayton has been elected student body president at the high school for next year, when she will be a senior. She serves as a student member of the Irvine Unified School District board. She also is a cheerleader and active in the drama department, and previously was a member of the track team.

Kathy Clayton said her daughter was chosen by the governor after a long and rigorous process. About 60 candidates for the post were invited to a convention in Long Beach, where they gave speeches to an audience of students, who then picked their top 12, she said. The dozen finalists were then subjected to lengthy interviews by the state education board and other educators, who made their recommendations to Wilson.

“It was entirely on her own merit. They thought her qualifications and experience were unusually broad, and she has insight into people and issues and decision-making,” Kathy Clayton said. “She has been so heavily involved in a student council organization, so she has had exposure to students throughout the state.”

Active in the California Assn. of Student Councils, Heather Clayton has traveled throughout the state training other council members to be student leaders.

She said that she has “learned a lot about dealing with different ethnic problems” by attending a high school with a student body that is about one-third Asian-American and by traveling around the state listening to the concerns of other students.