Finn Kerns serves as the Student School Board Trustee
If you’ve been fortunate enough to stumble into a local school board meeting, you have likely heard the charismatic and vibrant character of Trustee Finn Kerns. As the resident student board trustee, Kerns takes a stand on the dais amongst professional local-elected school board officials to represent the Conejo Valley Unified School District [CVUSD] student population.
Kerns started on the Student District Advisory Committee [SDAC] at Thousand Oaks High School. The program spans across the entire CVUSD district, with five to seven delegates from each high school who come together to collaborate with the district staff and school board to ensure that student voices are heard at higher local levels. From there, the SDAC committee elected Kerns in the 2025-26 school year to represent on the Board of Education and oversee meetings.
Even prior to his role as a high school representative, Kerns has been participating in student government since middle school, where he served as student council president. “I wanted to take the skills that I had now and the ability that I had now as a young person, which is limited in high school, I’ll say, and use it for something actually real,” Kerns said. Once he got to high school, he immediately got on board with SDAC and was eventually elected by his peers as the leader of his school’s branch.
Kerns is not only known across the district for his unwavering dedication to his role, but also for his undeniable charisma that charms audience members at meetings. “I like to make the meetings a little more animated. I like to inject my personality into them and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Kerns said. “But at the end of the day, what we’re doing is running the school district, and what I’m doing is representing the school board in that process. That’s my only goal.”
Kerns prides the CVUSD district on prioritizing student voices and having expansive student representation in all their official proceedings. “When you’re having these discussions about student achievement, and when you’re having discussions about what the district should spend money on, what priorities it is to focus on, [it’s] making board policy that’s gonna far outlive me,” Kerns said. “It’s really hard to do that for a school district for 15,000 students without ever talking to students.”
Beyond the local level, Kerns believes that the future of our nation’s democracy begins with small-scale involvement. Motivated by both civic and moral duty, he urges citizens and students specifically to be attentive to the proceedings of the school board and similar governing bodies. “The only way that we’re gonna get less divisive is if more Americans, more young people, could participate in the democratic process and make their voice heard,” Kerns said. Kerns emphasizes the vitality of complete participation for effective governance and why remaining a bystander establishes you as a contributor to whatever legislation is passed. “Democracy is not a spectator sport,” Kerns said.
Despite having a well-received presence on the school board, Kerns emphasizes that there is always room for personal growth, and that democratic government relies on its members constantly looking for ways to not just improve the system, but improve themselves. “It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to be able to become the public speaker that I am today, and I’m still not good enough,” Kerns said. Kerns thinks the most important part of being a trustee is the voice he’s been given, so he intends on improving on it most in the future.
Whether it is through meetings with his fellow trustees, serving as a messenger for his peers or simply evoking smiles and chuckles at the monthly school board meetings, Kerns is making his mark as a servant of the CVUSD school district and voice for local high school students. “I think my favorite part about all this is the voice that I’ve been given as student trustee, it’s something that I have not had my entire life, and how many students get to experience it?” Kerns said.
