Aliyya Swaby Photo
Harries with student council leaders.
Maybe they should have to write a short speech, or make a video. But students running for a seat on New Haven’s Board of Education shouldn’t have to earn B or C averages, citywide student council leaders concluded.
Gathered in Hillhouse High School’s roomy field house Tuesday, dozens of students, a few representatives per high school, debated the details of a process the Board of Alders has been debating for months — how to get a high schooler voted onto the Board of Ed by the end of the school year.
Superintendent Garth Harries empowered the council to serve as his “student cabinet” this year, to chime in where student input is necessary. The Board of Alders will solidify the process by Jan. 1.
As a result of last fall’s charter revision vote, the city will go from a eight-member Board of Ed appointed by the mayor to a “hybrid” board of six mayoral appointees, two elected members and a non-voting student member. At an early meeting Sept. 23, alders debated which conditions to attach to the student representative’s position.
Morris Cove Alder Salvatore DeCola (pictured at Tuesday’s gathering) has denounced the idea of minimum requirements for student representatives since it came up in September. He attended Tuesday’s council meeting, urging students to leave grades and scores out of the equation.
“I’m a licensed electrician,” he told the group of students. “Am I any less of a citizen because I don’t have a master’s degree? I don’t think so. We need to open the door for all skills in New Haven.”
His comments garnered snaps from his high school audience.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa urged students to use their voices “loudly, clearly and intelligently” to effect change in the city.
The basic framework of the process has already been determined. A selection committee of alders, city representatives, community leaders and Board of Ed members will solicit applications and choose six students to run in the elections. Students will then vote in one of the six to serve for a two-year term after his or her sophomore year.
Most other details were up for discussion Tuesday.
In their school groups, students tackled several tough procedural calls, including how and whether to impose eligibility requirements, how to guide the direct election process, how to raise awareness about the position over the next year, and how to train elected student members. City and district representatives table-hopped across the room, offering honest feedback or questions when possible.
New Haven Academy students debated about whether an essay requirement would eliminate from the running otherwise qualified students without strong writing skills.
Wendy Marte, a sophomore at New Haven Academy, said the essay, attendance, behavioral and GPA requirements all seemed too limiting.
Her classmate Joshua Maldonado, a junior, suggested a video or interview process instead.
Senior Colasia Claxton replied that the essay does not have to be particularly formal — it would be closer to a campaign speech than a five-paragraph expository text. The others seemed more comfortable with that idea.
Superintendent Harries (in photo at top) sat in on the conversation among several Career High School student leaders.
They worried aloud that their classmates would not respect a representative chosen from a different school, especially an underclassman representative. “If someone from Cross came to Career, they don’t know us and we don’t know them — we’re not going to listen,” said Tanasia Edwards, a senior.
The elected student should be someone who can “engage the audience,” she said. But the group agreed the election should not be a popularity contest.
Voting for or along with friends “is a hard thing to discourage,” Harries said.
After the small-group brainstorming sessions, Harries asked each school to report back. First up: eligibility requirements, yes or no?
Newlyn Joseph, a senior at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, was the first to venture a statement in favor of a GPA minimum. “The student [rep] needs to have time,” he said. “It’s absurd to take even more time away” from a student already having trouble balancing an academic workload, he said.
A smattering of applause and snaps broke out among the students for a point that was well-stated, albeit unpopular.
Julia Joy, a junior at Wilbur Cross, stood up a few minutes later to agree. Though “people with lower GPAs should be heard,” she said, “it’s absurd to consider someone with no dedication to academic life to show dedication to something similar.”
But when Harries asked for a show of hands, the vast majority of students supported no minimum GPA requirement for board candidates.
Many agreed that attendance records are important, but not necessarily as a minimum requirement.
Boughton (bottom left) and Sullivan (right) add ideas to their chart.
“If the student’s never in school, they don’t know what’s going on,” Sound School sophomore Connor Boughton said.
Classmate Kimberly Sullivan said leadership skills are necessary, but could be creatively defined — for example, “standing up for someone.” She said recommendations from teachers and guidance counselors could help illuminate those qualities in candidates.
Another major decision is how to ensure smaller schools are fairly represented in the election. New Horizons School was the smallest school with representatives in attendance, with about 100 students, Harries said.
“If a student from our school gets 200 votes, and someone from Hillhouse runs and they have 3 billion kids,” the Hillhouse student will win, New Haven Academy’s Maldonado said, his hyperbolic statement receiving laughs from the others.
Harries tossed out a phrase that had been bandied about frequently that morning: an electoral college system. Smaller schools could vote along with larger schools to eliminate bias, Career High School senior Ajenae Amos said.
Alder DeCola urged students to attend the upcoming Monday’s Board of Alders meeting, the next official step. He and Harries urged students to alert their student bodies about the opportunity, to tackle the challenge of sparking widespread student participation.
And students reassured district and city leaders they were ready to take up the gauntlet.
“Schools don’t know anything about this at all,” Maldonado said. He suggested a “mandatory assembly” for council members to explain the process.
“We don’t want to say, ‘Here are the people you can vote for,” he said. “We want to ease people into the idea of it.”
So a student who can't muster even a 2.0 GPA average should be seen as someone to listen to at this level? Thanks for having such low expectations of yourselves, students.
There is something to be learned from students who don't perform well in school, but they needn't have a spot on a board.