By Anna Bedell
Jaymie Bianca is the youngest candidate this year throwing her hat in the ring for a position with the Bristol Board of Education.
“If I am elected to the board, I would be the youngest woman ever elected to the Board of Education,” said Bianca. “I would just be able to bring a very useful perspective to the board because I recently graduated college and I was just in high school and I was just in the public school system.”
She said she is really able to relate to a lot of students and understand their perspective, as well as the families’ perspective.
“I also have a very unique perspective with special education; I would be able to bring my real-life experiences to the board,” said Bianca.
The 22-year-old local Bristol native graduated from Trinity College in Hartford
with degrees in English, human rights, and education.
She is running on the Democratic ticket with incumbents, Chris Wilson and Tom O’Brien. The Republicans are putting forward incumbent Eric Carlson and newcomers Dante Tagariello and Todd Sturgeon.
Overall, Bianca said that students such as herself would be able to pursue any career that they desire, whether it’s attending a four-year college, a community college or trade school or going into the military.
“I am a first-generation college student, and that has shaped the way that I think about higher education, and it showed me that there really needs to be an increase in accessibility for first generation college students,” she said.
Her main motivation for running, however, is special education.
“My main motivator for running was my twin brother Brandon, who is on the autism spectrum,” said Bianca. “And growing up, even though I was a young child, I would attend his PPT meetings with my parents.”
While attending those meetings, Bianca was really able to see how special education worked, she said. She was able to see what needed to be done and what services needed to be provided.
“So, growing up with that and just seeing how the Board of Education operated in Bristol, I knew that I wanted to run because I wanted to be a champion for special education and be an advocate for people like my brother,” said Bianca.
She said she wants people to understand that, yes, special education services will have a cost attached to them, but it’s incredibly important because Bristol has a huge special education population.
“What often happens is that people talk about the increasing costs of special education, and they talk about the increasing costs without offering effective and practical solutions,” said Bianca. “Being someone who’s watched my brother attend the Bristol public school system and watching my parents having to fight for his services to ensure that his speech therapy and occupational therapy was not taken away was incredibly important.”
“We can’t neglect those services for students because then those students aren’t going to receive the services that they need to succeed, not only in the Bristol public school system, but to succeed in the real world,” said Bianca.
Overall, one positive thing that Bianca wants to see continue is providing a holistic and diverse curriculum.
“Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern have pathway programs so students can take courses that relate to engineering or manufacturing, teaching, healthcare, business, so they’re able to see which classes they need to take to equip them to have one of those majors in college,” said Bianca. “We’ve been adding more to the curriculum in general.”
Bianca said she has been door knocking with a lot of people that are currently in city council. They have taken her under their wings while she has been introducing herself and telling them why she wants to be on the Board of Education, she said.
“I have been very active on social media as well because that’s really important because we live in a social media age so being able to reach all voters that way has been extremely important,” said Bianca.
She said one of her favorite things that she has done as a candidate is just attend community events.
“I really want to be a champion for my community and interact with my community, but I can’t do that unless the community sees me, unless I’m visible in the community,” said Bianca.
“I’ve been speaking to many different clubs and organizations in the community and just letting people know who I am, that I’m a lifelong grateful resident, and that I have the tools and skills and qualifications to be on the Board of Education.”
Bianca said she wants people to know that although she is only 22 years old, she has learned so much throughout her education with policies in her college experience relating to Title IX, non-discrimination, and campus climate.
“I’ve also worked in classrooms as well,” she said. “I have been an assistant English and art teacher so I have that multifaceted experience of working in a classroom as well as working on the policy side which is incredibly important.”
“I just want people to know that I am always willing to listen to all perspectives; I want to be a voice for the people and that means being able to be there for my community and listen to my community and listen to their concerns,” she said.
She said there have been concerns in the past that the Board of Education hasn’t been accessible, and she wants to change that.
“I want to be someone who is very accessible to my community, and if people have any concerns, I want them to know that I will listen to them and I will make sure that their concerns are addressed.”
Bianca said she believes that politics and policy is where true change happens.
She said she also believes that she was put on this earth to make a change and to be a champion and a voice for people who either don’t have a voice or feel like they aren’t listened to.
“I see that within politics and I know that politics can get very contentious sometimes but what I want to be able to bring is a sort of harmony, if that makes sense,” said Bianca.
“I want people to understand that if we just listen to each other and listen to each other’s perspectives and work together as a community and collaborate, that we are able to come up with viable and important solutions that are going to benefit everyone.”