There was a big surprise win in the Tuesday, May 16, school board election, in West Islip, for district high school senior, Quinn Bedell. The 18-year-old entrepreneur, and straight-A student accomplished this impressive feat solely with write-in votes.

There were three official candidates running on the ticket, for just as many openings on the school board, in the West Islip School District for this year’s election: Anthony Tussie received 1,398 votes, Christina Marks received 1,330 votes, and Matthew Levy received 1,233 votes. Levy lost his seat in this election to Bedell.

Bedell earned the second seat in the district with 1,365 votes. The Eagle Scout and natural leader wants to see students have more of a voice in the board of education’s decisions. The impetus to run came when his friend and mentor Tom Compitello, a longstanding member of the school board, died earlier this year.

The other write-in candidate in the election, Michael Pennolino, lost with 347 votes.

Was Bedell surprised at his underdog victory?

“I hoped I was going to win, but it’s basically pretty real now. I decided to run because I have a different perspective, the younger perspective, as someone who’s been through this and didn’t necessarily have an easy, normal road through the education system,” explained Bedell.

The ambitious and well-rounded adolescent holds the goal of improved screening for learning disorders at the top of the list for what he hopes to achieve as the newest and youngest member of the district’s school board. He managed to excel academically and personally, despite a protracted delay in the discovery of his learning disability. Shockingly, he wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until his sophomore year.

“Obviously, I know that you can’t just come in and change everything—that goes without saying, but definitely bridging better communication between the board and the students, and for the special education program, bringing the perspective of someone who’s been through that to implement new systems and get better screening for learning disabilities and bring the perspective of what the students would like to see maybe change a little bit, and be able to work with the people on the board and do what’s best for the kids because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about,” said Bedell regarding the main objectives for his new administrative role.

There are approximately 500 students elected to boards of education throughout the country. Anyone in their school district who is 18 or older is eligible to run and vote in school board elections. Bedell hopes to inspire even more young people to get involved in positions on their local board of education.

“Hopefully, through the publicity that this is getting, it will be a bigger thing because I think there’s definitely people who say the negative:  You’re 18, you don’t know everything, you don’t know enough about this, but I say all the time that I don’t know everything, and I think the fact that I’m 18 shows that I’m willing to learn. My education is from the district that I’m representing. I’m a product of that education system, so the fact that someone—who is a product of what this district has put out—would want to run and give input, then there’s no negative to that,” West Islip’s youngest school board member said.

Bedell is currently the vice president of West Islip High’s PTSA [Parent Teacher Student Association]. He is also a business owner, running his own company, Q-Man’s Landscaping. The high school senior is looking forward to starting his freshman year at SUNY Farmingdale this fall, where he will major in horticultural technology management. While the well-spoken and driven Bedell seems to be a natural at winning elections, he says he has no plans to go into politics as a career, and is only interested in taking an active part in improving the lives of students in the district which shaped him into the impressive young man he is today.