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Anthony Fiore: You can make a change as a high schooler.
Anthony Fiore needed perseverance during the Covid-19 pandemic to collect the signatures he needed for his election as student representative to the Board of Education.
He got the signatures. And on Friday afternoon, he officially became a member of the board.
That perseverance will serve Fiore well on the board, alders and New Haven Public Schools leaders agreed during his virtual swearing-in ceremony.
“You have proven already that you’re willing to do the hard work that is necessary,” Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers said over Zoom.
Fiore is a sophomore at High School in the Community. He ran unopposed to replace Metropolitan Business Academy graduate Nico Rivera on the school board.
Fiore said that he has been interested in running for a board seat for a long time.
“I learned at an early age that if you want to do something right, you should do it yourself,” he said.
Fiore had collected around 50 signatures when school buildings shut down in March and all of his peers went into distance learning mode.
He had to switch from collecting in-person signatures to gathering electronic signatures through social media. He said that his friends helped him spread the word and eventually reach the required total of 100 signatures from six different schools.
Zoom
Fiore’s virtual swearing-in ceremony.
The adults in the virtual meeting room encouraged Fiore to use his voice on the board and to get others engaged during the process, as Rivera and current student representative Lihame Arouna have done.
Fiore said that he plans to continue to use social media as a student representative to hear and elevate the voices of other students.
Some of his goals as a representative are improving student experiences, ensuring equal access to opportunities for students of color and bringing more resources to New Haven schools.
He offered a program like Recycled Justice as an example of a way to bring more resources to NHPS. At Recycled Justice, recycling collected from school buildings gets redeemed and the income is then shared with the homeless.
“If I’m able to improve the community, I can prove to people that you can make change even at a high school level,” Fiore said.
Fiore’s term will start at the first Board of Education meeting in July and will last until 2022.