LEWISTON — It’s not uncommon at school committee meetings to see the superintendent answering to a 17-year-old.

Sometimes they’re questions from Lewiston High School junior Marina Affo, a student representative, who asks: Why can’t students use their debit cards at lunch? Why don’t some of the student computers work? Why are certain sections of the high school too cold or too hot? Why isn’t the school store open?

As Affo asks, Superintendent Bill Webster takes notes and says, “I’ll get back to you on that.” And he does, Affo said.

School Committee Chairman Tom Shannon praised Affo for her curiosity.

Webster calls her refreshing.

A native of Togo in West Africa, Affo is an honor student, involved in school activities, class president, and aspires to become an investigative reporter.

“I want to write that hard-hitting story,” she said with a smile. In class, “we learned recently about Ida B. Wells,” a pioneering black woman who reported on lynchings in the 1890s. “I want to find out what’s going on and tell people. I also like human-interest pieces.”

She was asked last year by Principal Gus LeBlanc to serve on the School Committee. Initially she wasn’t sure, she said, but after talking to LeBlanc and meeting with Webster, she agreed.

“He’s nice,” Affo said of the superintendent.

She was advised that her role would be giving reports about what’s going on at school. Her history teacher, Debra Butler, told her she could and should ask questions.

Affo asks students and teachers if they have questions for the school board, and takes them on their behalf.

The first time “it was really intimidating,” she said. “I almost chickened out.”

Her questions were well received, and the answers helped explain things, Affo said. Debit cards at lunch would cost fees; a new heating system temporarily made some parts of school too hot or cold; students can report nonworking computers to IT.

Serving on the committee is far from glamorous, especially for high school students who get up early to go to school and attend meetings that can drone on into the evening.

Sometimes the meetings are boring, Affo said. Other times they’re anything but, including a recent meeting when tensions rose after parents asked for a policy change to allow a middle school lacrosse team.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. Sitting in front with adult committee members, it can get awkward, Affo said.

She likes to know what’s going on in schools before it gets in the newspaper.

In 2000, Affo was 5 years old when she moved from Togo with her parents and two siblings to Lewiston. She remembers little about her native country, she said, and likes her new one.

“It’s nice growing up in Lewiston,” she said.

Many people in Togo are Catholic and speak French. Affo speaks English without an accent, and speaks a Togolese language called Mina.

She works part-time at the Bread Shack in Auburn, and said she enjoys school, especially history and English.

“Those are things I love to do,” she said.

As class president, her style is to “try to make everyone happy. It’s not always going to happen, but be as fair as you can. Give everyone a chance to have their say,” she said.

“Whether you’re running for office or doing your homework, you have to give it your all,” she said.

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