By Haley Kosik/WJEZ News

With no music, theater, or foreign language, the schools in Sandoval, Ill., don’t offer kids much to put on a college resume.

Kade Gambill, 17, defies that. The junior is the school board’s first student member and he tried to rally support for a new school funding bill in Springfield. He accompanied his district’s superintendent, Jennifer Garrison.

We have cut over 20 percent of our teaching staff, said Garrison, we have cut over 20 percent of our non-certified staff. Building-level administrators, we have cut 50 percent. Central office staff, we have cut 50 percent. Extracurricular activities are run by volunteers.

While Gambill and Garrison are pushing for a change that would direct most state school dollars based on need, Gambill is upbeat about the future: “I believe the teachers and the administration both push everybody to move on as far as they’d like to go”, he said after his appearance at a Capitol news conference.