As someone who grew up in the inner city and worked to move into the middle class, Dan Romeo knows firsthand what a good education can do.

“I want to see the people of Syracuse do as well as they possibly can,” Romeo said.

So, in the effort to make that vision a reality, at the age of 24 and one year after graduating from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Dan Romeo has started vying for a nomination from the Democratic Party to fill one of four open seats on the Syracuse City School District Board of Education.

Romeo grew up on the North Side of Syracuse, in the middle of an urban school environment that is struggling on all fronts. As a result, he saw the kind of structural problems that students in urban school districts face, like high poverty rates and a severe lack of funding.

“Our students have a lot of challenges that students in other districts don’t have,” Romeo said. “They have barriers that they need to get over before they can even get to that next level of education.”

Romeo’s parents owned and operated a small grocery store in North Syracuse. While his family didn’t have a lot of money, Romeo had the chance to interact with the community his parents’ business was a part of.

After graduating from high school, Romeo went on to complete two years at Onondaga Community College. Then, he got a job as a firefighter for the Syracuse Fire Department.

“I love my job as a firefighter, but I said to myself ‘Man, education is so important I have to go back to school,’” said Romeo. “So while I was a firefighter, I went back to Syracuse University.”

Romeo is still a firefighter, and even if he wins a seat as a commissioner on the Syracuse City Board of Education, he said he still plans on continuing in that role.

There are four open seats on the Syracuse City Board of Education this election cycle. Thirteen people from the Democratic Party are campaigning for those four nominations from the Onondaga County Democratic Committee. In May, the committee will choose which four people it wants to run in the general election in November.

If Romeo does not get the party nomination, he plans on challenging the nominees in a closed primary election in September, meaning that only registered Democrats will have the option of voting for him.

Romeo has already done a lot of the legwork necessary to develop his platform, which is rooted in developing policies from an active position on the Board, rather than a passive one. He argues that the current Board doesn’t actually go into schools and observe what is happening.

“I’m someone who is truly trying to understand how the people that have their boots on the ground are feeling,” said Romeo. “I think that’s where we need to get our policy from, opposed to people who have been sitting on the board and not getting that input.”

Romeo’s campaign consists of three main talking points: expanding career and technical education, putting resources toward early childhood education and improving upon the recently implemented Code of Conduct.

Romeo is young, but he isn’t the youngest candidate vying for nomination. Caleb Duncan, an 18-year-old freshman at SU, is also campaigning for a Democratic Party nomination.

Patricia Body, a current Commissioner on the Board of Education, is not up for re-election this year, but still welcomes the possibility of serving with Romeo and Duncan.

“I would have no problem working with anyone who is elected for this office, regardless of their age, as long as their priority and focus is doing what is best for the children who attend SCSD,” said Body.

Michelle Mignano, who is president of the Syracuse City School Board and is up for re-election this year, said that she also supports Romeo’s candidacy.

“Energy and passion are not dependent on chronological age, nor is wisdom to work with others and within a system to make change,” Mignano said.

Published on March 30, 2015 at 11:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu