4 Students Vie For School-Board Seat

by Maya McFadden

Riverside junior Jhalynn McLaure (right) speaks up at Friday’s candidate forum.

A later high-school start time, Yondr usage only as a punishment, and more consistently available school counselors are among the many ideas championed by the four candidates running this week to serve as the Board of Education’s next student representative.

Those candidates are Hillhouse High School’s Yoselit Ortiz, Wilbur Cross High School’s Dani McTiernan Huge, Metropolitan Business Academy’s Michael Mapuvire, and Co-op High School’s Jael Mackenzie Phillips.

All four candidates made their pitches directly to their peers Friday during a candidate forum held in the Aldermanic Chamber of City Hall. The candidates are looking to fill a school-board seat that will soon be vacated by graduating High School in the Community senior Jonaily Colon.

New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) high school students will get to vote during lunch time on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to pick among the four candidates.

Whoever wins will join Career High School’s Abdellah Aly as one of two non-voting student representatives on the Board of Education.

At Friday’s forum, all four candidates spoke before roughly 80 of their peers about their priorities, experiences, and ideas to address students’ concerns. Colon and Aly hosted Friday’s forum.

The candidates began with opening speeches, then answered questions about their priorities, about artificial intelligence (AI) use, and about how they’d keep all students informed about happenings in the district.

Mackenzie Phillips said that her top three priorities are having students included in open and honest communication with the district; pushing the district away from universal usage of Yondr pouches, and prioritizing them as a punishment for students who use their phones too frequently and as a way to store away phones during tests; and pushing for Yale University to give New Haven schools more support.

Mackenzie Phillips cited the districts air-conditioning (AC) problems as the warmer weather approaches. She said that, last week, she witnessed a half dozen of her peers almost pass out because of the high temps in their school building, which does not have operable windows. She said that when her English classroom was 89 degrees, even though it was 71 degrees outside. “We just can’t do productive work like this,” she said.

One of Mapuvire’s top priorities is pushing the district away from relying on counseling interns who are constantly swapped out, making it harder for students to get consistent support in school. “I can’t tell you how many counselors I’ve spoken to and I’m just a sophomore,” he said. “We don’t want to keep telling new people our problems. It’s already hard to open up.”

Mapuvire also hopes to push for the district to offer more balance with Yondr usage like providing students with an hour or 45 minutes of phone use daily so that they can “be updated about our lives.”

McTiernan Huge said that she would advocate for the district to have a later school start time — closer to 8 a.m. — instead of having high schoolers wake up at 5 or 6 a.m. to arrive at school at 7 a.m. She said a later high-school start time will improve student attendance, morale, and engagement. “If New Haven wants us to do our best, schools have to start later,” she said, “and they have to do a better job of supporting our bodies and minds.”

McTiernan Huge also said she’ll prioritize pushing for more facilities funding and designated time for students to have study hall or extra academic help. She said there should be district-wide scheduling of study hall periods for students to better connect with their teachers.

Ortiz, meanwhile, is looking to re-introduce social-emotional learning (SEL) Wednesdays for students so that they have dedicated time each week to socialize. She also said she will push for cleaner bathrooms and safer hallways. She said she will advocate for the inclusion of more languages — like Spanish, Pashto, and Arabic — in district communications.

“I’m here to listen to the quietest voices not just the loudest ones. I’m here for the students in the back who feel like no one sees them,” Ortiz said.

When asked for their stances on how NHPS should balance technology use and AI with traditional learning, the candidates all agreed that, while technology can successfully be incorporated into learning, there appears to be a double standard when it comes to educators and students.

“No teaching should be getting taught from AI, just like a student shouldn’t have to learn from it,” Mackenzie Phillips said.

“Teachers should not use it for lesson plans then tell us we can’t use it,” McTiernan Huge said.

Audience members also got to ask the four candidates questions at Friday’s forum.

Career High School sophomore Riziki Mulungula asked the panel what they would do to address the small number of students who disrupt buildings and classrooms with their “bad behavior.”

“It’s not going to just be about talking to all of us in this room, so how will you empower those other students to be better?” Mulungula asked.

The candidates repeated their calls for increasing counseling supports, introducing study hall to allow students and teachers to build stronger connections, offering SEL days to help students socialize, and communicating directly with struggling students who are acting out.

Mulungula said she wants to see a student rep who truly advocates for their peers and isn’t just doing this to build their resume for college. “I really don’t wan it to be a popularity contest,” she said. “I want students to be led by a person we can look up to.”

She said she left Friday’s panel leaning toward voting for Mackenzie Phillips or Ortiz.

Career junior Sarah N. asked the panel what their specific plans are for improving NHPS’ funding problems. “It’s easy to just say you want to, but what ideas do you have to do it?” she asked.

Mackenzie Phillips said she plans to look at the district’s budget breakdowns to help identify overspending. McTiernan Huge agreed that she’d too look at spending on Band-Aids like Yondr pouches to encourage the district to prioritize spending on programs that provide real benefits to students. Mapuvire said he’d look at school-by-school budgets to make building supports more equitable. Ortiz said she’d look over the district’s financial plans to see where small cuts can be made based directly on students’ experiences with district programs and services.

Riverside junior Jhalynn McLaure concluded Friday’s panel with the final student question. He asked how the next student rep will help students feel more confident in pursuing their goals and feel more prepared for life after high school.

Mackenzie Phillips said she’d push for more required courses about personal finance and career readiness. Mapuvire said he’d push for weekly or monthly mentorship from the community in the schools. McTiernan Huge said she’d push for more funding to be allocated to college tours. Ortiz said she would share information with students about opportunities for readiness programs.

McLaure said he enjoyed Friday’s panel, as attending a Citywide Student Council meeting was new for him. He said lately he’s been pushing himself toward doing the “weird things” that actually turn out to be fun, like student council.

He recalled struggling a lot with getting in trouble when attending Cross because of how large the school was. “It’s easy to get lost when life seems so big but that’s why the smaller environment inspired me,” he said about Riverside.

The main topic that sparked McLaure’s interest Friday was increasing counseling. He said Riverside’s music-therapy programming has been life changing for him and his peers and he believes “everyone should have something like that.”

Co-op freshman Nike said she left Friday’s panel torn between McTiernan Huge and Mapuvire because, as a track athlete at Hillhouse, she agreed with those candidates’ takes on school-start times, counseling, food, and facility improvements.

Nike asked the candidates Friday about how they will work to make freshman voices included in school decisions. She added that she is considering running for student rep next year.

Board of Education member Andrea Downer gave closing remarks Friday before students enjoyed pizza and headed back to their schools. She thanked the candidates for having the courage to step forward and reminded the students that their voice and perspectives matter.

“You all are doing something many adults will never do,” Downer said. “Students deserve a seat at the table and no matter the outcome, be proud of yourself and continue to show up.”

See below for more photos from Friday’s event, and also for a video recording of a podcast interview with three of the candidates. That podcast interview was conducted by this reporter with the help of Metropolitan Business Academy’s production team, including educator Jim Bellantoni and students Isabel Torres and Sebastian Quinonez.

Jhalynn McLaure: Inspired to participate in Citywide Student Council after transferring to smaller school last year.

Co-op student Nike: Freshman voices should be heard.

Current BOE student reps Jonaily Colon and Abdellah Aly.

Hillhouse sophomore Treasure Birkett supporting classmate Ortiz.