Izzy Gardon makes statement as Sacramento schools' student board member
mgutierrez@sacbee.com
PUBLISHED TUESDAY, MAR. 20, 2012
Izzy Gardon embraces his double life.
The Sacramento City Unified School District student board member is part polished politician, suiting up for school board meetings where he has become a vocal contributor on controversial discussions.
Gardon, 17, is also part quirky kid, bouncing around McClatchy High School off Freeport Boulevard wearing a snug V-neck shirt and thrift store pants he cut off into shorts.
With a stiff back, he can wax poetic on the city school board dais about the state's mixed priorities when it comes to underfunding education. Yet, he easily lets his guard down in smaller settings, exposing an introspective side and sensitivity atypical of a teenage boy.
The senior is a two-time student body president at the 2,200-student McClatchy High, yet remembers feeling lost during his first two years walking the school's corridors. He describes his upbringing as middle class, but recalls childhood years when his family relied on welfare and community programs.
"I feel like I'm always living between two worlds," Gardon said. "Growing up in a divorced household, transition has always been easy for me."
Each week, Gardon shuttles between his father's home in Curtis Park and the Carmichael home of his mother and her wife. His parents