GHS Students Take Part in Organizing BOE Debate

boedebate
BOEdebate
Greenwich High School’s We The People Program with the League of Women Voters held a student-run debate between the six candidates for the Board of Education. (Photo Evan Triantafilidis)

The local election season is officially over, and while a select few of Greenwich High School seniors were able to register to vote this year, the majority of the 2,600-large student body has yet to reach the required voting age of 18.

But that didn’t stop the students from getting involved in this year’s Board of Education election in a year when impactful changes to the school district seem to be on the horizon.

Under the guidance of GHS teacher Aaron Hull, the We The People program and the League of Women Voters held a student-run debate last week, as candidates for the Board of Education discussed issues pertaining to the crowd full of future voters.

“I can’t say enough about the kids,” Hull said. “When I mentioned that the League of Women Voters was interested in doing this, it created an obligation on all our parts to go above and beyond. When the kids knew that they could do this, they said, ‘Let’s absolutely do it.’ It’s their enthusiasm that drives it. I’m willing to do it, but it’s really their buy-in.”

Students submitted questions prior to the debate and were awarded extra credit if a question was used. Students also got the chance to work behind the scenes in the production of the debate.

“The questions were fantastic,” Hull said. “There were 230 total questions that were solicited from multiple teachers. The students did the primary filtering, and at the end we did some mild tweaking. The kids were very in tuned to researching, writing and generating questions.”

“I’ll stack any of those 12 questions up against what you’ll see at the Republican or Democratic debate. They were highquality questions, and for that I’m proud of the community and of how our students presented them.”

Asking those questions were three students who were extramotivated to participate in the debate, Hull said.

Dolores Eslava, Joseph Magliocco and Elizabeth Murray got to ask the six Board of Education candidates questions regarding school start times, the student achievement gap, bullying prevention and more.

“It was definitely a group effort because we had the timers, people holding up signs and ushers,” Eslava said following the debate. “Liz, Joe and I were the first to jump at the opportunity to become moderators, but in a class as close as We The People, we all want to contribute.”

Eslava, a junior passionate about politics, says it was her first time moderating a debate.

“I would definitely do it again. I love this and I love hearing about the candidates. After being able to read questions and witness a live debate, it’s definitely something I want to pursue.”

Barbara O’Neill, Peter von Braun and Lauren Rabin represented the Republican ticket, and Jennifer Dayton, Anthony Lopez and Dr. Gaetane Francis sat on the Democratic side of the stage.

After the debate, Hull recognized the effort it took from all the students involved in the debate.

“The kids spent time in lunch, after school and over the weekend working on this,” Hull said. “We had a lot of kids behind the scenes that weren’t up on stage. My arms got tired just watching the timers. The three you saw in the spotlight represent the tenfold behind the scenes.”

 

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