The Learning Curve: They’re Getting Paid, Now They Want a Full Vote.

San Diego Unified’s student board member positions now come with a paycheck: about $1,700 a month. Following the passage of a statewide law, the district last month became the first in California to pay its student board members. It’s a big move, and one that students have pushed for years.  

During a press event at Lincoln High, student board members Blessyn Lavender-Williams and Matthew Quitoriano praised the change because it removes barriers for students interested in the position, especially for those who may need to juggle work and school. That was the position Lavender-WIlliams was in. Even after becoming a student board member, she still hadn’t quit her day job. 

“It feels good to know I can actually put in my two weeks (notice) now because it’s okay to kind of turn away from that, and step into a new thing and give student board member more of me,” she said.  

Quitoriano, for example, said he’s turned this position into a nearly full-time job, working dozens of hours a week preparing for board meetings, visiting school sites and attending district events.  

Even with this fresh victory, Quitoriano is already looking to the next battle: full voting rights. As it stands, student board members only receive preferential votes, meaning they can cast a vote, but it doesn’t count toward the final tally. In short, they don’t really have a vote. 

“It’s a little ironic when I get paid for work and being part of the Board of Education when I’m not technically part of the Board of Education, because I don’t have a vote,” Quitoriano said.  

To trustee Richard Barrera, the lack of full voting rights is a big problem. 

“We are disenfranchising a key constituency in our decision making around what happens in schools and that students, and at any point in our history, when we disenfranchise anybody … we’re weaker as a result,” Barrera said. 

This isn’t the first the district’s heard of this issue: Despite a penchant for unanimous decisions, the only vote that failed in recent years was about this exact issue. In a May 2022 board meeting, former student board member Zachary Patterson brought forth a resolution to support a statewide bill that would, in part, have allowed districts to grant student board members the right to a full vote. It was simply a resolution, not a binding pledge to give students the right. Barrera voted for the resolution, but current board members Sharon Whitehurst-Payne and Sabrina Bazzo did not. 

Whitehurst-Payne’s concerns revolved around legal technicalities. But Bazzo said flatly that she did not support student board members having a right to vote. Her concerns emanated from the fact that the registered voters who elected the adult trustees hadn’t had a say in whether the district had student board members. She also expressed concern that a student board member and an adult trustee who represents that student’s school could conspire to have undue influence on the board. 

Patterson said he was gutted by the result of that vote. “It actually felt a little bit like a dagger in the heart,” Patterson said. 

Though he said he deeply respected his former colleagues, when it came to the voting question he also felt the adult trustees may have had concerns about the competency of student board members like himself. 

Barrera directly addressed those concerns at the press event, comparing expecting student board members to demonstrate they’re capable of representing their constituents to the racist and sexist examples of America restricting the voting rights of Black people and women. Whether student board members are competent enough to be able to vote was an artificial question, he said, fueled by worries that some may lose power if student board members gain the right. 

“We become more powerful and more effective, the more people are enfranchised. So, it’s not just for the sake of the student board members that we should do this. It’s for the sake of great schools,” he said. 

A new tone: Despite the previous failed vote, Superintendent Lamont Jackson said he believes the board is broadly in favor of this. “I don’t want to speak for individual trustees … but there is no question about the core belief of the entire board and supporting voting rights of students,” Jackson said. But, he added, “there are some nuances that are still unanswered.” 

District leaders at the event, however, did not say what specifically they were doing to advance the issue. 

Full voting rights would need to first be approved statewide: That’s where Patterson is currently putting his efforts. Even after he graduated and moved across the country to attend Duke University, Patterson kept up his advocacy. That’s partly why he founded the National Student Board Member Association, an organization that advocates for and advises student board members. The bill to pay student board members was actually crafted by the organization, and they’re working to find legislative support for granting student board members full voting rights. 

There are also some technical hurdles to clear: Though most high schoolers cannot vote for the board members that actually make decisions about the schools they attend, students who are 18 can. So, if student board members are granted the right to vote and 18-year-old high school students are able to vote for both them and for adult board members, their vote could count twice. Another wrinkle is that San Diego’s city charter dictates how San Diego Unified’s board works. So, the city charter would need to be amended to grant students full voting rights.  

Though Quitoriano acknowledges those technicalities, they don’t discourage him. “I understand there’s a lot of political barriers, but I would really appreciate if we could just start thinking about what are some ways that we can really enshrine the idea that students deserve a voice on the Board of Education,” he said. 

Patterson is similarly undeterred, even as he knows that getting this significant change across the finish line will require significant coalition building. 

“If we are able to bring forth an amendment to the city charter, it’s going to take a lot more than just the people we have supporting now,” Patterson said. “It’s not just the district, it’s not just Sharon (Whitehurst-Payne) and Sabrina (Bazzo) that we need to do their part, it’s all of us. It’s a collective effort to really show the community that we can be trusted, we can be taken seriously and we can create a meaningful impact.”