Good Timing
Sometimes in life, you have to take advantage of opportunities that come one’s way. If you’ve followed my social media, then you’d know that a golden opportunity came my way recently. That’s what today’s post is about.
About 3 weeks ago, my District’s School Board member resigned from his position. That resignation left a vacancy for the District 6 Seat of the Jefferson Parish School Board (JPSB).
In my Parish (parish=the Louisiana equivalent of a county), the current School Board gets to appoint a new person to fill the vacancy. There’s 9 members on the Jefferson Parish School Board, so the remaining 8 members vote on the appointment at a meeting. That’s the process.
Consequently, the JPSB decided to host a special session/meeting on Friday, January 21st to appoint someone to the vacant District 6 seat.
You may be wondering, who could get appointed to the seat? Well, any resident of District 6 over 18+ years old could apply for the vacancy. Those are the only two qualifications for running for & getting appointed to the School Board. Simple enough.
In the time between my former School Board member’s resignation and the special session on 1/21, citizens of District 6 in Jefferson Parish were allowed to submit their resumes to the School Board.
As I mentioned earlier, the eight remaining JPSB members were set to appoint a new School Board member (from the candidate applicant pool) by a majority vote.
In total, nine people submitted applications to the Jefferson Parish School Board (JPSB). The JPSB invited these nine candidates to interview in front of the board and the general public. One of those nine candidates would get picked and take the oath of office.
So, what’s the point? You may wonder why I am telling you about this School Board vacancy.
Well, I was one of those nine applicants for the vacancy.
Yes, I am a 22 year-old guy and a recent college graduate. You don’t often hear of many 20-something-year-olds seeking public office.
Less than a week before the vacancy appointment/special meeting, I decided to “throw my hat into the ring” and apply for the vacant School Board seat.
Why not? I was thinking about running for political office in the near future, so I decided to shoot my shot & see where the cookie crumbled.
Cliches aside, I seriously desire to make a positive impact in my community and my country. So, what better what to reach this goal than to get onto the School Board?
The rest of this post will recount my experience in applying for the Jefferson Parish School Board. Let’s dive right in!
Taking the plunge
Here’s the scoop.
The deadline for the JP School Board application was on Monday, January 17th (four days before the special session). I submitted my application on Monday afternoon and started to spread the word to my families, friends, and acquaintances about my candidacy.
Those few days between the application deadline and special session were quite a whirlwind for me. After work, I spent those days researching the position, contacting the school board, and general prep work.
Honestly, I hadn’t thought about applying for the seat until about a few days before the deadline. However, a fellow political friend convinced me to take the plunge by offering to give me advice during the application process.
Over the next few days, I met with several members of the Jefferson Parish School Board to introduce myself and to learn more about the School Board. I also committed time to research the position and to brainstorm my speech at the special session School Board meeting on Friday, January 21st. Those several days were quite busy, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
At the Friday meeting, the board allowed all nine candidates to give a 3-minute introductory statement. Then, a board-led Q&A session followed each person’s introduction.
I was the 4th person of the 9 to go up to give my speech. I had never done anything like this before. I had done some public speaking before in Church and for class presentations. However, I had never given a political/public office-related speech. Before my speech, I just prayed that God would allow me to speak to the best of my ability at the meeting. Boy, I can honestly say that the Lord delivered for me.
For my speech, I primarily emphasized my qualifications and uniqueness as a candidate. My speech ended with my main reason for desiring to join the school board.
Here’s my reason: I plan on having a family in the Jefferson Parish area. Since I plan on living in the area, I want to make sure that all families in the area have the opportunity to receive a quality education. As I mentioned in my speech, the seeds for a thriving community start in the local schools.
The School Board was quite complimentary of my speech–which I appreciated. In fact, School Board member Billy North commented that I was an “impressive young man” during the Board-led Q&A. I personally thought that I was articulate and measured in my speech, so I couldn’t ask for anything else
The Outcome & Takeaways
Once all 9 candidates gave their speeches, the School Board started the nomination process.
Long story short, the first three nominated candidates failed to receive a majority vote from the Board. Three up, three down.
For the fourth candidate, the Board nominated and successfully voted to appoint Ms. Diane Schnell for the vacant seat. She promptly took the oath of office and became the newest member of the Jefferson Parish School Board.
Of course, I was disappointed with the outcome. I genuinely thought I had a shot of getting appointed. So, I was bummed out by the defeat.
Nevertheless, the meeting was still a win. I definitely made a solid impression at the meeting. In fact, a few School Board members talked with me after the meeting and gave me some needed encouragement. It also helped that I had a few “fans” come support me at the meeting.
Overall, the whole School Board saga was a worthwhile experience for me. I would do it over again–in spite of the outcome.
I lastly wanted to thank everyone who helped me through this whole process. Don’t worry because things are coming in the future. Anyways, stay classy & God Bless
-Tin Can Conservative
P.S. the JPSB recorded a video of the whole meeting. i would definitely recommend watching
Link to the video of my speech (go to the 41-minute mark):
Article about the School Board meeting; I recommend watching the brief video recap of the meeting
Another article about the School Board meeting; got my name listed in this article!
