Matthew Chavez never spent a day of learning that wasn’t in a public school.
He graduated Mingus Union High School in 2011, attended Glendale Community College for about a year, playing football there, graduated fire academy in 2013 and then went to EMT school through Yavapai College.
The new MUHSD Governing Board member, who was appointed after the resignation of his predecessor, Ashley Koepnick, said he will celebrate 10 years as a fulltime firefighter with the Verde Valley Fire District on July 1.
“The career couldn’t be any more rewarding when it comes to the positive change that we can make in someone’s life that may seem so simple to us, but is a very big deal to the general public when they’re calling 911, on their worst day,” Chavez said.
The reward he gets for serving the public was one of the main motivating factors that contributed to him applying for the school board role, he added.
“To be a positive member on the Governing Board, to affect great change or instill great values into the board,” Chavez said is his main goal, adding that he doesn’t have any agenda, especially because he is an appointed member instead of elected.
Chavez said he wants “to bring a level head to it and think outside the box for solutions that best serve our community and the kids and the teachers.”
While Chavez said he attends very few Governing Board meetings on a regular basis, he knows how they run and how board members get work done.
“[I know] how the agenda goes and the calls to action, agenda items for discussion, and I’m familiar with that because of my public service with the fire district,” Chavez said. “We also have a Governing Board, so we get those, we get those minute updates, and the board packets for review and everything.”
During his swearing-in ceremony at the Thursday, Feb. 12, Governing Board meeting, Stephen King, Yavapai County superintendent of schools, said he was very proud of Chavez for stepping into the position.
“I went around and talked with teachers, his former teachers and his former principals from way back when,” King said. “The first response I got in the first one I asked, was, ‘really?’ Yeah, he was the kid that had a whole lot of shots in life.”
Chavez said that while he was in school, he was a very active athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball, particularly football.
“I feel very strongly about the consistency that these public schools provide to some kids in the terms of sports, especially at the high school level,” he said. “I could say honestly that the consistency of leadership and expectations of my high school academic teachers as well as my athletic coaches got me to where I got me to where I am today.”
Chavez said since he hopes he can help in any way bring the current students of MUHS to a better place in their lives.
“It doesn’t take much to figure me out to know that I’m a pretty big outdoors and sports guy,” he said. “I think that the value of those are great for young kids becoming young adults through the high school, and the valuable lessons that they can learn through team sports or through club memberships or through after school programs.”
King said the during the interview process, Chavez stood out in large part because he has a deep history with the public schools in the area.
“I just sat there looking at a 33-year-old man with wisdom that I had never seen before, and with people much, much older, and I was impressed,” King said.
King said during the Governing Board meeting that it is important to work together and to be civil even when you disagree with someone.
“We are stronger together, and that is my hope,” King said, “that you are stronger together, and that every decision that you make for the benefit of all these kids that you see and young women and young men that are the future of this community.”
After his first meeting as a Governing Board member was over, Chavez said it was just about what he expected.
“I’m excited to be here,” he said. “Just got to settle in and get everything in my brain.”
