Jackson Lewis is still getting used to his election to the Canyons School Board.
“It’s surreal,” he told FOX 13 News in an interview on Monday.
It was just a year ago that Lewis was graduating from Hillcrest High School. Now — at age 19 — the self-described “political nerd” will serve on the nonpartisan school board that oversees that school and others like it in the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. He is also believed to be the youngest elected officeholder in Utah.
“I thought, you know, this is a perfect way to get involved. Not just in the political world, but education is just so dramatically important,” he said.
Lewis said he was prompted to run as a student when he sat in class and heard discussions about education funding and educator support. He also feels student voices are not always considered or necessarily heard in education policy discussions. Lewis got some campaigning support from his local Democratic party, he said, but he also faced some hurdles knocking on the doors in the district he was running to represent.