Not even 20 minutes elapsed during InMaricopa’s school elections town hall Thursday when three things were evident: a tiny crowd, a missing candidate and stark generational differences between candidates.
Getting a community engaged in politics is already a tough cookie to break, but drawing a crowd to a Maricopa Unified School District meeting or forum? Good luck.
Sitting in an hours-long school board meeting reviewing policies, budgets, questioning accountability and a host of other topics isn’t exactly the most exciting way to spend a Wednesday night. And that was clear when the town hall’s in-person crowd barely topped a baker’s dozen.
The low turnout also led to moderators asking candidates how they can get entice the general public’s interest in school board matters.
The general response could be easily summed by recent Maricopa High School graduate Nicolas Yendrzeski: it’s a shared responsibility between the public and board members.
He added community members without students in an MUSD school should still feel as though their “voice still matters in America’s democracy” because political participation matters on local, state and federal levels.
Former board member Ben Owens concurred with the shared responsibility statement and acknowledged school board elections are often overlooked.
Carolyn Lopez, a current board member who was appointed to her seat in November and recently attempted to oust an MUSD special education director, simply said “it’s ok [for the community] to ask questions.”
An MIA candidate
Only three of the four school board candidates for Maricopa Unified School District bothered to show up to field 77 minutes of hardball questions from moderators, such as how to increase public engagement and if cellphones should be confiscated from students during class.
The missing candidate? Shawnté Rothschild, a Rancho Mirage resident and former applicant for the seat now filled by board member Carolyn Lopez.
Although she RSVP’d for the event weeks ago, Rothschild did not make an appearance. She did, however, send an email to InMaricopa’s generic news email at 12:44 a.m. apologizing for the absence.
“I deeply regret missing the opportunity to engage with the community and share my vision for our school district,” she wrote. “Please know that I am still fully committed to serving the students, families, and educators of Maricopa.”
Let the adults decide?
The elephant in the room had to be the age difference between the candidates. Owens and Lopez have at least two decades on 18-year-old Yendrzeski.
But the Arizona State University freshman didn’t let that stop him from sharing his views that older students “don’t want to be treated like children.” He was also the most eloquent candidate by sprinkling in adages and having the fewest pauses or filler words.
That generational divide became even more obvious in answers to questions on cellphones and school safety.
“I say lock ‘em up,” Lopez said about cellphones.
“I know that kids are sneaky,” Owens said. “I would totally support some kind of lock up or something like that.”
The lone advocate was Yendrzeski, who acknowledged their distraction but said the argument to confiscate phones simply “mitigates the discussion.” He said students need to learn in real world situations how to “take responsibility for their own property” and learn when to use cellphones.
“They are going into the adult world, might as well prepare them for the adult world,” he said.
That repeated into a discussion on school safety where threats and the use of deterrents like metal detectors were discussed.
“If kids aren’t comfortable going through a metal detector, oh well,” Lopez said.
“Speaking on behalf of my peers, a lot of students see those security measures as an insurance policy and not necessarily prioritizing their safety,” Yendrzeski said. “That isn’t the way it should be.”
When it came down to it, Yendrzeski said as a product of MUSD’s schools and programs, he knows what the district needs to build future leaders.
“I’ve seen the ins and outs, I’ve seen the power dynamic and the level of communication between the administration, the teachers, the staff, the students,” he said. “I feel like a lot of perspectives aren’t necessarily being heard on a higher level.”
