Serving on two school boards — one statewide and the other local — as a student member, Waukegan High School junior Victor Hinojosa says he uses a multiplier effect to help him contribute more to both.
Now in his second term on the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Student Advisory Council, and his first stint as the student member of the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Board of Education, Hinojosa said the two roles complement one another.
“I feel my work on the Student Advisory Council gives me an understanding of how to improve education,” he said. “Understanding education in Illinois helps me share ideas on policy as a student board member in Waukegan.”
Hinojosa is helping to reshape the role and the number of student board members in Waukegan, while hoping to influence the ISBE with new ways to create equitable funding for education in Illinois, equalizing opportunities for youths across the state.
District 60 Board of Education President Brandon Ewing said he first encountered Hinojosa’s leadership skills as a seventh grader when he played a leadership role with adults and students helping to change the name of his school from Thomas Jefferson Middle School to John A. Lewis Middle School.
Ewing said he has watched Hinojosa the last few years and seen examples of how the student’s statewide view helps the entire board examine and implement policy.
“The roles complement each other very nicely,” Ewing said. “With what he learns with the state board while he is there, he is able to use to bring the resources back to Waukegan.”
For the past few years, District 60 has been reviewing its polices through an equity lens, and Hinojosa is working with adult board members and others to help reshape the role of the student board member.
Nick Alatzakis, District 60s communications director, said the board is scheduled to vote soon to have two student board members, one from the high school’s Brookside campus and the other from the Washington location
Alatzakis said the student members will be appointed to serve for a term extending over an entire school year, rather than for a year spanning two school terms. If approved, Hinojosa’s current term will be extended through June.
“He got really involved behind the scenes on the policy, and helped bring ideas to fruition,” Alatzakis said. “You can tell he has a grasp on the organizational effort.”
Through is work with the Student Advisory Council, Hinojosa said he hopes to play a role in making funding education more equitable.
Schools like Adlai E. Stevenson, Libertyville and Vernon Hills high schools are located in communities with large property tax bases, which bring abundant resources to the youths of those communities, he said. The same is not true in Waukegan and North Chicago.
With a wish to take nothing away from schools in towns with a large tax base, Hinojosa wants to work with his colleagues to develop a policy the ISBE can take to the Illinois General Assembly to bring sufficient funding to all public schools in the state.
“We need to have the money for everyone to have the same opportunities to succeed in the 21st-century world we live in,” he said. “Education has to be more equitable so everyone has the same opportunities.”
As the major project with the council during his first term last year, Hinojosa said he and the other council members brought a recommendation for more mental health resources to the state’s schools.
“Mental health affects not only students, but the whole school community as well,” he said. “We want to help create a safe environment for students.”
Of the 24 members of the Student Advisory Council, Hinojosa is one of two from Lake County. The other is Ovia Sundar, a senior at Barrington High School. Others are spread out across Illinois, mixing teens from rural and urban environments, as well as large and small communities.
