Presenters tell borough board low turnout drives push for broader outreach in CEC elections

Sir Sam Edger, senior director in the New York City Department of Education(DoE) Office of Family and Community Engagement, and Rebecca Rosalu, senior director of governance in the same office, briefed the borough board on the 2025 Citywide Community Education Council (CEC) election cycle and asked for help boosting candidate recruitment and voter turnout.

The presenters described a three‑phase campaign: a current "Learn" phase (public education about CEC roles), a "Run" phase when applications open (mid‑January to mid‑February), and an online "Vote" phase in late April through May, with results announced in June and new two‑year terms beginning July 1. They said parents sign into the city parent account (referred to in presentation materials with variant spellings such as "NIXA") to determine eligibility to run and to vote; presenters urged borough offices to help families create and use those accounts.

Edger called participation data from 2023 "dismal," saying citywide turnout was about 2.6 percent and candidate applications were an even smaller fraction. As a local example, presenters said Staten Island had roughly 41,000 enrolled students and about 58 parents who voted in the referenced year, underscoring their argument that outreach must improve to make elections representative.

The speakers reviewed CEC responsibilities: advising superintendents, recommending building and zoning changes, participating in superintendent hiring and evaluation, hosting public hearings subject to open‑meetings requirements, and holding a chancellor town hall once per council term. They explained the 36 total councils (32 community councils, four citywide councils including the Citywide Council for High Schools, the Citywide Council for English Language Learners, the Citywide Council for Special Education, and the D75 citywide council) and the typical composition of district councils (14 members: 10 voted parents or caregivers, two student reps, and two borough president appointees).

As a concrete ask, presenters requested three forms of support from borough presidents' offices: (1) amplify messaging to increase voter turnout and candidate recruitment; (2) help distribute printed and digital outreach materials during each campaign phase; and (3) assist with hiring a short‑term election outreach team (one project manager, one outreach lead, one data analyst, and roughly 16to20coordinators). They clarified that outreach contractors should not be parents with children currently enrolled in NYC public schools to avoid conflicts of interest and suggested alumni parents, private/charter parents, students, and experienced community organizers as ideal hires.

Board members asked questions about voting eligibility for guardians (presenters said eligibility is determined at the school level and a caregiver listed in a student's school record is eligible), council membership counts and student representative selection (student reps are chosen by superintendents; city and district council sizes vary by council), and procedures to remove a CEC member (removal must follow each council's bylaws and the process begins at the council level; the chancellor has ultimate authority in removal decisions, per presenters).

The board handled routine business at the start of the meeting (a motion to accept minutes was moved by Jerry and seconded by Matt and Frank) and set its January meeting for the following Wednesday (January 8) because the first Wednesday is a holiday; the January meeting will include presentations from the MTA and Parks about tree planting. The meeting closed after a motion to adjourn moved by Jerry and seconded by Elena.

The DoE presenters provided an email for further questions (elections2025@schools.nyc.gov) and said digital materials and a presentation slide deck with a QR code and links to election resources would be available for distribution.

Next steps: borough offices were asked to review the outreach materials and share them with local schools and social channels; the DoE plans to open candidate applications in mid‑January and to begin online voting in late April.