Whittell High School Senior Olive Hamner-Jillson, a recently awarded National Merit Scholarship Finalist and the current Student Representative on the Douglas County School Board gave her first presentation during the Feb. 27 Board meeting.
Photo by Sarah Drinkwine.
Whittell High School senior and Douglas County School Board student representative Olive Hamner-Jillson jumped right in during the Douglas County School Board meeting on Feb. 27 to provide student input on agenda items that directly affect students.
Hamner-Jillson gave input on authorizing staff to submit an application to operate an alternative schedule for the 2025-26 school calendars.
“From a student’s perspective, I know it’s really hard to take our finals at the end of the semester right after we get back from break, so starting in August can make that a lot easier,” Hamner-Jillson said. “I also know as someone who takes a lot of AP classes, having more time to before the May testing and prepare for these exams can also make it easier for us,” said Hamner-Jillson on the calendar item.
The motion passed unanimously.
Hamner-Jillson also provided input to align homework with educational goals, student well-being, and best practice.
"As a student, homework over break does benefit me, in both my advanced and nonadvanced classes,” she said. “Just having the little bit of review before I go back to school helps to ease back into it, but I also know some people who totally disagree and think that they don’t have to do the homework, and they are fine. So, I think it is really dependent on the type of learner and student you are, and it should be more of an adaptive thing and more on how different people learn.”
The motion passed unanimously to direct staff to provide more information to the board for a homework policy to be developed.
During her student report at the meeting, Hamner-Jillson said she is looking forward to sharing student experiences, the schools and the opportunities throughout the district.
“I am honored to be chosen as one of the student board members and I am excited to be given this amazing opportunity,” said Hamner-Jillson during the meeting. “I am very passionate about this and I plan on representing the students the best I can.”
Hamner-Jillson replaced Ender Dempsey in February who served on the board from August 2024 to January 2025. A new student representative will be chosen for each semester of the school year.
“Being a student representative is a chance to make sure every student at every school feels seen and heard,” she said.
She plans to make a positive impact on the School District by uniting the Lake schools and Valley schools for a cohesive learning environment and to ensure that all student voices are heard.
“I would really love to increase the school and community spirit not only at our individual schools, but at schools throughout the district and really bringing them all together,” she said.
Hamner-Jillson is involved in many school activities including the academic team and girls’ golf team. She is the Vice president of the senior class, President of the National Honors Society, President of the Key Club, and a web leader.
She has gained leadership skills through her involvement with many school clubs, and is the captain of the golf team and the academic team. She was recently named a 2025 National Merit Scholarship Finalist and is among the top 15,000 highest-achieving students in the country.
A change Hamner-Jillson would like to make is initiating more recycling throughout the community.
“I recently learned that Whittell does not recycle or compost, so I would like to push to start recycling in the community and the schools,” she said.
During her report, Hamner-Jillson said the boys’ ski team at Whittell placed second and were state runners-up in all of Nevada in downhill skiing and Lake schools’ grades third through eighth grade will be going to Heavenly in the coming weeks to learn to ski.
Also, at Whittell, seventh grade middle school girls’ volleyball team won the small school tournament, during a recent poetry out-loud competition one winner was selected to go on to the University of Nevada Reno for the State-wide Competition, and three students received the Soroptimists honor “Women of Distinction” awards for South Lake Tahoe.
For Douglas High School, Hamner-Jillson reported that a girl on the wrestling team won the Nevada State Title for her weight.