More than 60% of students in the Roaring Fork School District are Hispanic, but when Jasmin Ramirez was elected in 2019, she and fellow board member Natalie Torres became the first Latinas to serve on the school board.
Like all Colorado school board seats, it’s a volunteer position that comes with no pay. That sacrifice became even more challenging when Ramirez’s husband lost his income during the pandemic. At the same time, she felt like she brought valuable perspective on the issues facing Latino students — from parents facing COVID risks at work to lack of internet at home — that other school board members lacked.
“It is so important to have diversity on these boards,” she told lawmakers at a recent committee hearing. “Nobody understands that lived experience. It becomes a burden to those of us who want to create change in our communities to do this for free.”
A proposal working its way through the Colorado General Assembly would allow school board members to be compensated for their service for the first time. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Steven Woodrow of Denver and state Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, both Democrats, doesn’t set the rate of compensation. Instead, school boards could vote on a compensation rate that would go into effect after the next school board election.
Supporters of the proposal — including the Colorado Education Association, the state teachers union — say it will make school board service more accessible to people from diverse backgrounds, including working-class people of color who are more representative of Colorado students.
Serving on a school board can require many hours of work outside of meetings and force members to scale back their paying jobs. School district employees who run for and win school board seats have to quit their jobs.
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A job or a civic duty? Colorado weighs paying school board members - The Colorado Sun
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