'Whip-smart': This 22-year-old helps lead one of the largest school districts in Arizona

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At just 22 years old, Armando Montero is a leader of one of the biggest school districts in Arizona — a position he started down the path toward before he had even graduated from high school. 

Tempe Union High School District, where Montero serves as school board president, serves almost 13,000 students in Tempe, Chandler, Guadalupe, the Gila River Indian Community and Ahwatukee. 

“It’s important to have more young people sitting in office, particularly at this level — at the school board," Montero said. "To be one of those five voices, to bring a perspective that is not traditionally there." 

'He was relentless in his mental health advocacy'

Montero’s intelligence and potential stood out to his high school friends and classmates early in his time at Desert Vista High School, where he started in 2015. Desert Vista is one of seven schools in Tempe Union.

Kaitlyn Laibe, Montero’s best friend, first saw his intelligence on display for the debate team during their sophomore year. She called him “whip-smart” for his debate performance. 

As their friendship strengthened, Laibe and Montero began to get involved in politics together, campaigning in local elections and voter registration efforts.

Montero “looked at me and said, ‘This is what I’m going to do,'” Laibe recalled. 

He stuck to his word. Around that same time, because of his own personal struggles and the loss of a friend to suicide, Montero began to advocate for increased mental health resources and support in the school district. 

“He was relentless in his mental health advocacy pursuit,” Laibe said. “That was really the framework through which he saw all other issues — was this understanding that if we don’t tackle mental health, then all other issues are just placing a bandaid on them.” 

His advocacy soon led him to the district's boardroom, which he described as “a daunting experience.” Montero found himself standing in front of the school board proposing more mental health resources in schools, such as increased funding for school counselors, psychologists and social workers. 

That's when Stacia Wilson, Tempe Union's acting superintendent, first met Montero. 

“He was courageous,” Wilson said.

A virtual campaign during COVID

Montero began to question why students weren’t further integrated into the school board process. He was met with comments of “you’re too young to understand what you’re talking about” and “let the adults in the room handle it,” Montero said.

Then, in 2019, during the summer after he graduated from Desert Vista, members of the school board approached Montero with the idea of running for a board position. 

“I initially just kind of laughed it off and didn’t think it would be possible,” Montero said. 

But that same summer, Montero, then just 18, filed his intent to run. It was official. Just weeks before he was set to begin attending Arizona State University to study political science in August 2019, he was running for office. He would be on the 2020 ballot.  

“Even if I wouldn’t be successful, just to show people that it’s possible to run … that was important to me,” Montero said.

Despite having to run a campaign during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — campaigning through virtual town halls, phone banking and social media, all while attending his freshman year of college — in November 2020 Montero secured a seat on the board. 

When the results first rolled in, Montero called Sarah James, a music teacher at Tempe Elementary School who campaigned with him. 

“I vividly remember he was so excited, his voice was just like in disbelief,” said James, who now serves alongside Montero on the board. 

James wasn’t as surprised as Montero seemed to hear the news of his win. 

“I feel like everyone knew he was gonna win,” James said. “He had such a dynamic campaign and such a different perspective.” 

Bringing student voices to the school board

In January 2021, Montero's term on the board began. As a young person in a position of power, he found himself confronted by questions about his abilities. 

“Having to listen to a 19-year-old, there’s that initial sense of side-eye,” Montero said.

Despite the higher standards he felt he had to meet, Montero began to take on more responsibility. He was elected by his board colleagues to be vice president in 2022 and president in January 2023. 

As a board member, Montero has had the opportunity to go into high school classrooms across the district and meet with students. Those visits, he said, are one of his favorite aspects of board service.

Laibe, Montero's friend, said the student experience is “inherently disempowering” because students rarely get a voice in important schoolwide decisions. But Montero’s presence on the board is changing that dynamic, she said. 

“This is a student who, less than a year ago, was disempowered by this administration and is now sitting upon it,” Laibe recalled of Montero joining the board. “It’s really, really incredible.” 

During classroom visits, Montero has been able to “talk to students and see them get excited when they see someone that looks like them, that understands them, that is out there making those decisions,” he said. 

Since joining the board, Montero has worked with his colleagues to launch an ad hoc committee surrounding student mental health to shape school board policy, reduce the student-to-counselor ratio, expand LGBTQ+ student protections and increase accountability for the school board itself.  

Wilson praised Montero’s leadership, including his ability to listen to others, consider alternate ideas, tackle issues head on and ask questions of his colleagues.

“He’s an amazing leader now, and I just know he will continue to be,” Wilson said. “It gives me a lot of hope for our young leaders coming up.” 

Montero’s term is up at the end of 2024. He plans to run for reelection. 

Triple major takes job in education policy

While running for and serving on the school board, Montero was continuing his college education.

In addition to political science, Montero had started pursuing two additional majors, economics and mathematics. He was the rare triple major. He graduated from ASU with all three in May 2023. 

Months after graduating from ASU, Montero moved from student to staff. In August, he started at ASU as a senior planning analyst to help the university prepare for the future and prepare more students for higher education.

Montero plans to continue his education by going back to school to receive a master’s or law degree.

Whatever pathway he goes down in the future, Laibe said she knows Montero will achieve great things. 

“From the moment I met him, from the first debate round I saw him in … I knew this was someone whose name we were going to remember,” Laibe said.

Reach reporter Morgan Fischer at morgan.fischer@gannett.com or on X, formally known as Twitter, @morgfisch.