Recent Alisal High grad takes a run at elected office.

Things many 18-year-olds do: leave home, get a full-time job, worry about college tuition. Something not many 18-year-olds do: run for the local school board.

It’s not unheard of for teenagers to compete for public office, but it’s rare. Kimberly Morales, a recent Alisal High School graduate, has a good reason for wanting to become a Salinas Union High School District board member: “I have been impacted by the decisions the board members have made,” she says. “I believe I can be involved in the community, and this is a great opportunity for me to do so.”

Morales has all the makings of a young professional. She shows up for an interview with the Weekly in a smart yellow blazer alongside her campaign manager and 23-year-old brother, Angel. She graduated from Alisal in 2012 after just three years, taking classes at Hartnell to earn additional credits. Now she’s a student at Heald College, majoring in business and accounting.

“Her discipline is excellent,” says Ramiro Mata, her former high school math teacher. “She would come in on a Saturday or Sunday just to make sure she’s on top of the material.”

What Morales has in discipline, though, she lacks in years. She admits she doesn’t have direct experience with school board work, and she attended her first school board meeting this month. But she says work experience isn’t the most important qualifier.

“Experienced people don’t always make the best decisions,” she says.

Her platform is threefold: to advocate for better student counseling, more job training and flexibility in local funding. Many of her ideas come from first-hand knowledge of the city’s public schools.

Morales says some students don’t know much about graduation requirements because they don’t get enough time with counselors. She also believes there is too little variety in job-training classes; she ended up taking auto shop because the other options were already full.

Her other focus is figuring out how the school district might best utilize an increase in funding set to come next school year. She’s advocating for more local control of that money.

Morales and Meredith Ibarra, who’s listed as a parent on Monterey County filing records, are running against District 5 incumbent Eva Marie Martinez.

Martinez says she’s proud of her role in keeping the district financially stable and her endorsement by the Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers. “I’m looking forward to meeting [Morales] on the campaign trail,” she says.

Morales says she was inspired to run after a recent conversation with some of her classmates. Someone joked that she should run, and Morales thought, I can make a change.

Now she’s got the support of her family, including her brother, who worked with Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, during the 2010 election.

School Board President Kathy Ramirez says she’s supporting all the incumbent members seeking re-election, but she respects Morales’ effort.

“I think it’s great one of our students is feeling compelled to run,” she says. “We’ve done something right in her development, as a student in our district.”