ASU student becomes youngest ever member of Tempe Union school board

​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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