It’s Friday night. If you’re like me, you probably got your mail-in ballot sometime in the last two days, and tonight is the first time you’ve really had a chance to sit down and look at it. Maybe you’ve dug through your stack of election mailers and are trying to decide how you are going to vote. Maybe you’re googling the propositions. Maybe you’re trying to figure out just exactly what a corporation commissioner does, anyway.
Or maybe you’re not. Maybe you just filled out the first two or three races—President, Senator, Representative—and called it good. Maybe you think the other races just don’t matter that much, or you’ve decided you’re going to vote your party all down the ticket, no matter what, and so when you get to the non-partisan races you haven’t a clue who to vote for, and it’s late, and you just want to finish this up so you can get your ballot in the mail, (or more realistically, the drop box), because this is a really important election, and it is really important that you get your vote in to be counted, like, now. And all of that is true. But I’m going to ask you to hold up for just a few minutes longer, because I need to talk to you about another election that is also really important.
I’m going to talk to you about the school board. Because, as important as the Presidential election is this year—and don’t get me wrong, it’s really, really important—I would argue that local elections—like school board—are just as important. Because it is our local elections that will determine what our neighborhoods look and feel like, and how our friends and neighbors are treated.
That’s why I am urging you to vote for Dorothy Denetsosie Gishie and Makaius Marks for school board this year.
The first, and arguably most important reason, is equity. Flagstaff Unified School District’s population is 27% Native American, and yet the school board is currently 0% Native. By electing Gishie and Marks we have an opportunity to have a school board that not only better represents the community they are serving, but one that is uniquely prepared to understand the challenges faced by all of our students and their families.
Beyond that very valid reason, however, is the fact that both candidates are highly qualified for the position. Gishie brings with her over thirty years of experience working as a counselor and administrator for local not for profit NACA (Native Americans for Community Action), and is a parent of both former and current students attending FUSD schools.
Marks, a recent graduate of Flagstaff High School, will bring to the board a much-needed student perspective: the four stakeholders in our public schools are the teachers and other staff, the parents, the community, and the students. We need to have all four of them represented, and Marks has shown his abilities as an outstanding leader both while attending Flagstaff High School and as a member of the Student Advisory Council to the school board while he was still a student.
When we cast our ballots on election day (or, more realistically this time around, in election month) we are not only choosing a particular person, we are choosing the community we want to live in. In no election is this so apparent as school board, where we are choosing the people who will be making decisions that affect the children who will be running our communities for the next fifty or so years. You think the Supreme Court is important because it’s a lifetime commitment? Try setting the standards for kindergarten—some of those decisions will impact generations.
We are incredibly lucky that this election we have the opportunity to vote for not one, but two individuals who are not only qualified to fill these seats on the school board, but can also help to bring in the balance that we have needed for many years. Vote for Gishie and Marks for school board. And then go get your ballot in that drop box—because this election is really important.