Three new members, along with incumbent Rani Dasi, were elected to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education on November 5.
Dasi, who won 23.6% of the vote and has been a member of the Board of Education since 2015, will serve another four-year term. She has also served on the board of the Public School Foundation and the Family Success Alliance.
According to Dasi’s website, her top three priorities for the district are to obtain quality teachers, to focus resources to needs and to improve school facilities.
Jillian La Serna was also elected as a new member of the board.
La Serna, an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at UNC-Charlotte and formerly a teacher, assistant principal and principal at Carrboro Elementary School, won 22.3% of the vote.
La Serna’s priorities include promoting equity within the school district by continuing to fight systemic racism and ensuring access for all students in the district.
Winning 17.5% of the vote, Deon Temne was also elected to the board of education.
Temne, who is also the Vice-Chair of the Equity Advisory Council and a member of the School Improvement Team at Northside Elementary School, wants to advocate, represent and build trust as a school board member.
According to his website, Temne said he will work to move conversation beyond politics and board rooms and back into the community during his time as a board member.
Ashton Powell, a public school teacher and leader in the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) and the University of North Carolina System, also secured a seat on the board of education, receiving 13.7% of the vote.
Powell said his priority as a school board member is to redefine the definition of “success” for students in the district.
“At this moment, it seems that ‘success’ is too often defined as getting students as competitive as possible for college applications,” he said. “This is measured through standardized tests, GPA, and AP scores, which are seen as the mechanism for getting our kids into college so they can be ‘successful.’”
Powell said he is most passionate about addressing the mental health of students, citing research that, in college, almost 40% of students have significant mental health challenges.
“While our schools and policies are not the only contributors, we cannot ignore our role in creating this situation,” he said. “We need to evaluate how our current practices are contributing towards negative mental health outcomes and adjust accordingly.”
Seven candidates ran for a position on the school board; however, Carmen Heurta-Bapat and Louis Tortora chose to withdraw from the race, and former school board member Andrew Davidson was not reelected, receiving only 11% of the vote.
