Co-Op Sophomore Wins Board Of Ed Seat

Co-Op sophomore Lihame Arouna will be the newest student representative on the Board of Education, having won Friday’s election 1,531 to 858.

Arouna, who will replace graduating Hillhouse High student Makayla Dawkins as one of two student reps on the board, won 64 percent of the vote against New Haven Academy sophomore Sofia Morales, who won 36 percent.

A 15-year-old Hill native, theater student, and student senate representative, Arouna said she ran for the Board of Ed seat to advance ​“student voice and student power” throughout the public school system.

For her, that means building more opportunities for student leadership within individual schools, and ensuring better lines of communication between the Board of Education, school system administrators, and students.

“Constantly I found me and my group of friends confused and not knowing what’s happening” with the recent discussions at the BOE around school closures, teacher layoffs, and a daunting budget deficit. ​“Having more communication, bridging the gap between students and the Board of Education” are key to what she hopes to accomplish in her term on the board, she said.

She said she also wants to pressure city schools to prioritize environmentally conscious measures like increased recycling and reduced food waste.

Morales, a 15-year-old from the Amity area, said she wanted to be on the board to push the school system towards implementing mandatory teacher and administrator training around how to support LGBTQ+ students.

She said she routinely sees and hears about ​“casual homophobia” in classrooms, with students yelling at peers about being ​“gay” and teachers not doing anything about that.

Increased sensitivity training, she said, ​“will really create a safe environment for everyone.”

She said she is also ​“extremely frustrated” with the lack of teaching of Mexican and Mexican-American history in city schools. That’s particularly egregious, she said, considering how Latinos make up nearly 50 percent of the public school student body.

Both Arouna and Morales said they would like to see the Board of Ed student representatives have voting power on the board. Currently, only the adult appointed and elected members can vote.

“The school district thinks we’re responsible enough to be on the board,” Morales said. They should also see the student reps as responsible enough to cast their own votes.

The election took place in city high schools on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The election saw a total of 2,389 ballots cast out of a city public high school population of around 6,000.