It was a confluence of two events that led planning director Lee Krohn, aicp, to look at placing students on town boards and commissions. High school students had successfully assisted with a historic preservation survey and the experience pointed to the promise of youth involvement, while “the utter absence of younger voices” during a discussion of Manchester’s energy future pointed to the need, he says. “We learned afterwards there’d been significant debate on the topic at the local high school, but we failed to engage them.”