Nearly three years ago, then-Desert Vista High School senior Armando Montero asked the Tempe Union Governing Board to endorse a March for Our Lives demand that the state provide more support for students’ social, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Last week, now Tempe Union Governing Board member Montero achieved a milestone in his years-long effort as he and fellow board members adopted a comprehensive policy for addressing students’ social, mental and emotional health that may be the first of its kind in the state. Montero chaired the committee – comprising 25 administrators, parents and students as well as outside experts – that produced the policy, first unveiled last month and then tweaked by board members in a subsequent hearing.
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Imagine being a student with three majors, holding a part-time job and a position as vice president of a school district governing board.
This is Arizona State University senior and Ahwatukee native Armando Montero’s life. Montero has three majors – political science, economics and mathematics – and is the vice president of the Tempe Union Governing Board. As president of the Tempe Union High School District (TUHSD) Governing Board, Armando Montero counts the adoption of a comprehensive mental health policy among his greatest achievements.
Montero graduated Arizona State University in May with degrees in political science, economics and mathematics (statistics), with honors from Barrett, The Honors College. He was a Truman Scholar last year. In 2020, at the age of 19, he was elected to the TUHSD Governing Board on a student-centric platform that included mental health advocacy. He now works as a senior planning analyst in the ASU Office of the Senior Vice President while serving as president of the school board. “Mental health was one of the defining issues that led me to run for the board,” said Montero, who chaired an advisory committee of students, teachers, families, administrators and community partners that wrote the district’s mental health policy. The policy, adopted by the board in 2021, focuses on resources and processes for suicide prevention, intervention and postvention (interventions for bereaved survivors, community members and health care providers), making it “likely the most comprehensive mental health policy in the state,” Montero said. “We have reduced the student-to-counselor ratio to close to 1-to-400, doubled the number of CARE 7 specialists at each school, established critical partnerships with organizations such as Care Solace, established cross-departmental, multi-tiered support system teams, created programs to reduce the stigma, and so much more. While we still have a lot of work to do, this has been a tremendous starting point and put Tempe Union on the map as a statewide leader in mental health,” Montero said. With this experience in his hip pocket, Montero is participating in the Truman Democracy Fellows program for Truman Scholars who are interested in pursuing electoral politics. He was recently selected for the program, which helps participants of all ages and political affiliations develop knowledge of key issues and challenges surrounding electoral politics, build community with other fellows who are actively planning to run for office, and become better prepared to succeed in the political arena. He will use what he learns in the program to inform his decision of whether to run for school board reelection or seek a higher office. The program includes discussions on topics related to running for office, such as cultivating donors and raising funds, working with party leaders, navigating election law, running a campaign, building coalitions and balancing personal life with public office. “I’m honored and incredibly excited to be selected to participate in the Truman Democracy Fellows program this year. After being selected as a Truman Scholar last year, the people that I have had the opportunity to meet, connect with and learn from have been invaluable, and I know this program will provide unique opportunities to connect with others from across the country who have been elected to public office and are considering running (for office),” Montero said. An Arizona State University student has won the nation’s most prestigious award for undergraduates who are pursuing careers in public service – though he’s been involved in local government for two years already.
Armando Montero, who is pursuing three degrees — political science, economics and math — was elected as the youngest-ever member of the Tempe Union High School District governing board in 2020. Now he's the winner of a Truman Scholarship. Montero, who is in Barrett, The Honors College and will graduate from ASU in 2023, plans to use the prize money to attend the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and then work for an education nonprofit. “One of the main reasons I’m going to law school is to continue working in local politics, which I’ve done since I was a sophomore in high school,” he said. “I still want to serve on the school board and continue working in the community I grew up in.” Since the beginning of the Truman Scholar program in 1977, ASU has produced 22 Truman Scholars. The most recent winners are Alexa Scholl in 2018 and Frank Smith in 2015, according to Kyle Mox, associate dean for national scholarship advisement at ASU. “I cannot emphasize enough what a remarkable achievement this is,” Mox said. “Given the incredible level of accomplishment among the applicant pool, the Truman Scholarship is among the most difficult national scholarships to win.” Each university is limited to four nominees, and ASU typically gets 10 to 12 strong applications for those four spots, he said. Students who want the award must show that they already have a deep commitment to service. When Montero was running for a seat on the school board, the Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement reached out to him to begin long-term planning, Mox said. Montero found out he won the award during a surprise Zoom call on April 14 with ASU President Michael Crow and Provost Nancy Gonzales. Montero, a graduate of Desert Vista High School in the Tempe Union district, answered some questions from ASU News: At 19, Armando Montero is now the youngest member of a school board that stresses diversity and equal representation In the November Tempe Union High School District Governing Board elections, Armando Montero, a sophomore studying political science, economics and math, made history by becoming the youngest ever member elected to the board at 19. He was ceremonially sworn in by Mayor Corey Woods during the board’s first meeting of the year on Jan. 13.
Montero said joining the board was never a long-term goal, but his experience with the district made him knowledgeable of the issues students faced. When he was a sophomore in high school, Montero lost a friend to suicide, which prompted him to pay attention to the lack of mental health resources available in schools. "Not only does Arizona have a student to counselor ratio of 1 to 900, but our counseling department is structured as very college readiness-oriented, they’re shorthanded and there is also a negative stigma surrounding mental health," Montero said. As a junior in high school, Montero invested himself in learning about mental health and suicide prevention with the school district and became an active member in the community. In 2018, Montero organized with students across the district to introduce a resolution to the school board that was presented to more than a dozen other districts in Arizona. “Having that opportunity to work with the district, I realized that there really wasn’t a voice for students on a governing board that oversees 14,000 students,” Montero said. For second-year Arizona State University political science student Armando Montero, a seat on the Tempe Union High School District governing board was never a long-term goal.
It was instead the natural result of a politically involved high school career and a proclivity toward calm, dedicated actions from a particularly well-spoken and ambitious student. It was back in 2018 when Montero first approached the board with a student-led bill to increase mental health resources for students in the Tempe Union High School District. Montero, then a Desert Vista High School student, said he began to notice the lack of voice for students within their own governing body. “A good governing board has representation that really reflects the community that it represents,” Montero said. “And when you’re overseeing close to 14,000 students, I think it’s important that at least one of those voices is someone who understands what students are going through.” With only five board members in charge of eight separate high schools, including one online school, the Tempe Union High School District governing board has an incredible, yet often unseen, influence over the lives of many Valley students. They oversee everything from the nutrition of student meals to major curricula and budget changes. This means that for Montero, who is striving for change in the way Tempe Union approaches the counseling and mental health of their students, the school board is exactly the place he needs to be. Though, interestingly, the idea to run was not his own. “I was approached by a couple of community members as well as currently elected board members about the idea to run for the board,” he said.
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