When High School South senior Jordon DeGroote decided to run for school board in August, his initial concern was whether the community would take him seriously. A student not turning 18 until October was petitioning to join the elected body responsible for overseeing the school district. Many move to WW-P for the schools, but the schools aren’t that good are they?
Teenage school board candidates have run before in New Jersey and DeGroote reached out to two of them.
“They said it was the most frustrating and exciting thing they ever did,” DeGroote says. “I agree. Being a young candidate, running against the current board vice president and former president of the PTA, I thought the biggest concern was getting respect as an adult, but that was put to rest early.”
While he lost the election to incumbent Michele Kaish, DeGroote ended up with more than 40 percent of the vote. Much campaign energy was spent convincing skeptics.
“A lot of people asked, ‘do you just want a teacher fired?,’ ‘are you doing this for college?’” says DeGroote, who maintains he will not be including his election efforts on his college resume. “I can’t believe how hard it was to convince people I would go to school locally.”
Though he is now not duty bound to stay in the area, Princeton University remains his first choice, followed by Georgetown.
There was also skepticism of more than just DeGroote’s youth.
A month after DeGroote filed to run, the district announced a proposal to redesign the upper elementary school math program, and part of the community has voiced concerns over the proposal’s impact on the quality of math education. In addition the district has implemented other curriculum changes, and the only non-incumbent running for school board found himself in the midst of the ongoing conversation over the curriculum.
The main challenge was convincing residents he was running for the board out of sincerity and a desire for greater transparency, though the community soon took his candidacy seriously.
Plunging directly into local politics was a learning experience that no classroom can replicate. He did receive support from unexpected places, including letters from the NJ Libertarian Party and state senator Shirley Turner. While those may have been small downpayments for future goodwill, there were also rumors of support by current elected officials.
Board members actively endorsed candidates in the 2014 election (The News, November 7, 2014) and board member Yingchao Zhang and DeGroote were seen together at a Democratic party function.
“Personally I was not involved in terms of organizing, or contributing to his fundraiser,” Zhang said. “I know some of my past supporters did. It’s a relatively small community, and I’m sure people made up their own minds.”
DeGroote maintains he ran a sincere campaign aimed at getting the student and community voice heard.
“A lot of people thought we weren’t running the honest campaign that we were. An uncontested seat is the absence of democracy, especially at a time when there’s so many questions.”
His campaign fundraising was just below the $4,500 campaign finance reporting threshold, more than enough to set up a website and order 10,000 fliers and 370 lawn signs. In addition, he estimates his campaign had 60 volunteers.
Most of the donations were generated at three campaign events, and he also set up a GoFundME webpage. DeGroote says an Asian parent he met at a school board meeting hosted the campaign’s first fundraiser with the Asian community. Around 60 people attended, and the campaign raised enough donations from this first event. There were two other meet and greets, including one with the Indian community.
Unlike the trite campaign ads and soundbites of higher level political races, local politics is more personal. The children of board and Council members are his classmates, and he discovered that in local races reputation matters. In addition to the personal connections, local politics may well be more impactful than higher profile races.
“We are taught state and national stuff, but the one thing that is really not stressed in school is the power of local politics,” DeGroote says. “Going in I knew enough not to expect magic and sparkles from democracy. The politics that most affects us is local, but it has the lowest voter turnout. A national party platform isn’t going to have an item on their website about the Howard Hughes tract.”
On top of school work and his leadership roles on the Model United Nations and football teams, DeGroote spent roughly three hours a day campaigning.
“I did not have any down time, that’s for sure,” he says.
A few dozen students in South’s AP government course, which DeGroote is in, took advantage of extra credit offered to students volunteering in any campaign.
“It was a longstanding policy that’s offered, and I think the students found me more accessible,” says DeGroote, who adds that managing the volunteers was the most difficult aspect of the campaign.
One volunteer inserted a mailer into a resident’s mailbox, who turned around and contacted the school. (Only postmarked mail can be placed in a mailbox.)
DeGroote ran afoul of another rule when he passed out fliers to his classmate-volunteers in school, and he had to have a chat with principal Dennis Lepold.
“There are election rules in place intended to prevent school board members from forcing kids to take election fliers back home,” DeGroote says. “I wasn’t aware of them. I had passed out the fliers in school to the volunteers because that’s where I could find them.”
He is looking to pursue another run for office after college, and the biggest lesson he learned from his first one is to resist complacency.
“The Council election in West Windsor shows you cannot take a break. Elections are a marathon. Never get comfortable with certain results or outcomes. If you think you did well at a forum, going door to door, at a fundraiser, never think you’re good enough.”
As a Model U.N. member DeGroote relishes debating issues. He encountered much disagreement on the campaign trail, which gave him a certain degree of satisfaction.
“When people disagree with you, it shows people were worried that you’re getting elected,” DeGroote says. “While I disagreed with certain policies, every school board member has a commendable dedication to serving the community. Michele Kaish ran a respectable campaign, and I hope she felt the same about mine. She’s been a community volunteer for as long as I’ve been alive.”
On certain district policies, DeGroote remains vocal. “From a student perspective, yes a lot of stress comes from over active parents but also from the system,” says DeGroote. He sees the same pressure is felt by other students at nationwide Model U.N. conferences. “SAT and grades become personal worth. Cutting competitive programs and reducing A&E is not going to take away stress.”
“There are students who need the program because of natural ability. If you look at the external report, it recommends expanding the G&T program. The district sort of ignored that as a whole.”
He also believes there is a lack of transparency, and he says this could be improved by videotaping meetings. During the election, Kaish also indicated support for taping meetings, as did all five candidates in the 2014 board elections.
Better community communication, DeGroote says, is still needed. He attended the August board meeting preceding the district-wide E-mail announcing the elimination of midterms and finals, and he says there was no mention of the impending curriculum change.
“There was no E-mail telling us it was under consideration.”
