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Pleasanton Unified School District students will now be represented on the Board of Trustees by one of their peers, after recently voting for their first student trustee in an election that was limited to the three high schools.
Foothill High senior Saachi Bhayani, who previously served as her school’s alternative student representative before winning the election, beat out three other candidates from Foothill and Amador Valley high schools for the new position of student trustee, which she will hold for the 2021-22 academic year. There were no nominees from Village High School this year.
Though she’s “not too passionate about politics,” Bhayani told the Weekly in an interview that she decided to run because “a lot of people doing the representing of the kids at the school I went to, they weren’t really representing anybody but a small portion of people.”
A change in state legislation this year now gives school boards the ability to have a student board member cast a non-preferential vote that is non-binding, according to PUSD spokesperson Patrick Gannon, who said having a student trustee is “something that we had wanted to do for some time.”
“The old way, student board members would provide a report to the board about what was going on at their school and participate in the board conversation that was happening at the board meeting,” Gannon said. “Now we’ve moved from a selection to which students can apply, to an election process where students get to choose, with the added emphasis on student voices being in those conversations and actually being able to voice an opinion.”
Unlike traditional school board elections or even campaigning for class president, PUSD’s student trustee is elected by those in grades 9 through 12 from all three high schools. Nominees first completed a panel interview with multiple district administrators before four final candidates were selected for the runoff election.
Each candidate submitted a 250-word statement but students voted without knowing any names until after casting their ballots — a process that Gannon said is meant to avoid popularity contests and encourage picking a candidate that resonates with their values.
“A lot would vote based on the name,” Gannon said. “We wanted to prevent that and have a candidate statement. They had to write about their experience and not mention their names.”
Because of how the election was organized, Bhayani said she “absolutely” had to win over other students at other schools: “I had to frame my candidate statement, which was primarily focused on all of PUSD’s high school problems.”
“I really tried to focus on what’s the primary cause of student stress,” Bhayani said, and learned that “classes that placed a lot of emphasis on tests are the most stressful ever” for her peers.
“I don’t think tests are a fair way of assessment,” Bhayani added, and said she plans to work on “grade equity, making sure they’re more fair and represent students’ performance … I want to see more diversity in how our grades are really done.”
Being on the board has provided a different type of learning experience for Bhayani so far. “Honestly I just find this stuff super interesting,” she said. “I love learning the inner logistics of what’s going on in the district, learning about how spending works, how programs work together.”
Bhayani added, “It’s a super cool learning experience because I did not know how local politics or local school boards work; I just knew how they affect you. It’s cool to learn about everything. I don’t learn this at Foothill.”
Those real life lessons can run late sometimes when board meetings don’t end until midnight and Bhayani has to stay the entire time. Whether she’s allowed to occasionally sleep in the next day is unknown but Bhayani said “a lot of teachers do know that I have this position,” and have been flexible and understanding about letting her occasionally leave class early to attend a board function — or in this case, a press interview.
“I think they know I’m a good student and not abusing my power. I’m just really grateful for understanding teachers,” Bhayani said.
As for future plans, Bhayani has no aspirations for a career in politics after serving on the board this year, but added she can see “probably in my 40s or 50s becoming a trustee member. This is just more of a passion project for me because I saw kids not being represented.”
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