Youth is an Asset, Say New
Jersey’s Youngest Board Members

Surveys of school board members in New Jersey and throughout the nation tend to find some common traits.

School board members are typically well-educated (43 percent of New Jersey board members attend graduate school or have a graduate degree). They are fairly evenly split along gender lines – 51 percent of New Jersey board members are female.

But there’s one thing you can’t call most school board members: young. Fewer than 2 percent of New Jersey school board members are under the age of 30, according to NJSBA data (46 percent are between the ages of 41 and 51 years).

The under-30 group includes an even smaller sub-group: board members who have been elected while still teenagers. Three examples include Elizabeth Chang of the South Brunswick school board, Michael Collins of the Holmdel Township school board and Keith Rosso of the Saddle River school board.

Chang is 18 and a freshman at New York University, where she majors in finance and minors in education. She ran for her board after the district made changes she disagreed with, such as changing Advanced Placement schedules and no longer paying for AP exam fees.

Collins, currently 20 years old and a senior at New York University, was elected at age 18, the year after he graduated from high school. He had been a regular attendee at board meetings and had spoken out on various issues, including student placement policies and curriculum inconsistencies. “When I was a student at Holmdel High School, I was very concerned about the direction of the school district, despite its high-achieving status,” said Collins. “There was administrative upheaval so perverse that it severely affected student morale. I ran for the board to make sure the district was on solid footing.”

Keith Rosso joined the Saddle River school board at age 18, during his senior year. His interest in school board affairs began when he was 12 when he periodically attended board meetings with his mother. “In my senior year in high school, I became the student representative to the board. In 2007, I was one of eight candidates to run for the three open seats,” said Rosso, now 21 and a senior at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.

Young board members are in good company. Kevin E. Ciak, president of NJSBA from 2006-2008, was first elected to the Sayreville board at age 19 while a student at Rutgers University. Now a 16 year board veteran, Ciak said these members provide a unique perspective to a board. “A student who just came through your district provides an outstanding insight – a customer perspective, if you will – of what works and doesn’t work in your district,” he said.

“Having recently been through the school system, I have a strong knowledge of the district’s curriculum, buildings and grounds, student-related policies and personnel,” said Collins. Rosso echoed that opinion. “As a recent graduate of the high school, I have a first-hand account of the strengths and weaknesses within the district from inside the classroom,” he said.

The young board members believe they can also connect with a district’s younger constituents. “I think a lot of members of the community, especially people my age, feel more comfortable in talking to me,” Elizabeth Chang said.

Where the young board members are no different than their older colleagues is in the challenges they confront and in their hopes for their school district. Keith Rosso’s district is currently conducting a superintendent search. “I hope that following the search, the new superintendent, the board, administration, faculty and staff, parents and community members can all work together for the benefit of the students in the district,” he said.

Chang and her board share an overriding concern with most of the 4,800 board members in the state: “I just really hope that my district can continue to maintain or better its current quality of education,” she said, “while not raising taxes or making too many cuts that will impact the students.”

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