Markeshia Ricks Photo
Tallying at City Hall Friday.
Another Hillhouse High School student will join the Board of Education as another Hillhouse student prepares to exit.
Hillhouse rising junior Makayla Dawkins will be the next non-voting, student BOE representative, replacing graduating Hillhouse senior Coral Ortiz. Ortiz was one of two of the first students to ever be elected specifically to represent the interests of their peers. Dawkins will be sworn in at the next BOE meeting on Monday. Student board member Jacob Spell, who was elected last year, will become the “elder statesman”
Of the 3,287 votes cast in the most recent election for the student position on the BOE, Dawkins, who received 1,581 votes, or 48 percent, was the far and away winner. The votes were tallied Friday night.
ESMUS student Owen Heapy came in second, earning 628 votes, or 19 percent; Sound School student Sheylian Berrios received 618 votes, or 19 percent; and High School in the Community student Brianna Carmon came in fourth place with 460 votes, or 14 percent.
Participation in the election for the non-voting student member remained high in its third year since a charter referendum changed the structure of the board in 2013. Last year 2,830 students cast their votes, while 3,469 voted the first year. And while the turnout remained high, the amount of time to tally the votes is only getting lower.
Unlike the first student election, where results weren’t available for about 10 hours, tallying votes for this third election went even quicker than last year which took about six and a half hours. This year’s winner was determined in about two hours thanks to students being able to cast their votes using the standard voting machines that are used during regular elections.
Click here to a view spreadsheet with the school-by-school breakdown of the vote.
Congratulations to Makayla Dawson, and also Owen Heapy, Sheylian Berrios, and Brianna Carmon! New Haven now has a wonderful tradition of electing student representatives to the New Haven Board of Education. As someone who met all four candidates (and worked on the election process), I can say that all the students were impressive. This process -- for the candidates, their campaign managers and campaign teams -- is a leadership and character-building experience. Experiential education at its finest! And truth-telling is possible to the adults on the BOE.