05/15/2016
Hello Sharon friends. Because the issues in the School Committee race have been somewhat drowned out by conversations about other races, I wanted to post something to provide a little clarity as people make their decisions over the next few days.
If you think I oppose foreign language in the elementary schools, that is incorrect. I believe that we should either continue the pilot with the grade that is currently being taught foreign language so that we know how it works in the older grades first, or offer foreign language as a choice program, before committing to the significant amount of money that it will cost to fully roll out the program as proposed. Importantly, however, I don’t believe we have a plan for rolling out the entire program that does not threaten other valuable things, like music and the arts, nor do I believe we have a plan for addressing how this program works in older elementary grades as the differences in students’ learning needs become more apparent. You may disagree with me, and that’s OK, but I thought it important to be clear about my thinking on this.
If you think it’s a good idea for sitting school committee members to try to consolidate power year after year by promoting challengers who share their views on specific issues, you should not vote for me, because that is what is happening in this race. It is not fun to be the target of that effort, but I have been there before. The difference this time is that I have decided it is way past time to say it out loud.
OK- if the first two points haven’t ruled me out for you, here is what I would much rather be talking about. If you want a school committee that is thoughtful, responsive to community input and concerns, appreciative of the vast diversity among our students in learning styles, interests, and aspirations, and mindful of the school committee’s responsibility to ask the difficult questions and not just serve as a rubber stamp on important decisions that have already been made by school administrators, then I humbly suggest I am your guy.
Over the last six years, I have served as Secretary, Vice Chair and Chair of the School Committee, and on the budget, policy, and negotiations subcommittees, as well as Capital Outlay and Priorities Committees, deepening my understanding of the issues facing our town and schools. As secretary, I facilitated the review and release of several years of Executive Session minutes as part of my efforts to ensure transparency. As a member of the negotiations subcommittee, I helped negotiate the current contract with the Sharon Teachers’ Association and the implementation of a comprehensive educator evaluation system, and I am currently serving as chair of that subcommittee in the ongoing negotiations for a new teacher contract. I bring to that role my professional experience as an employment lawyer, my understanding of the fact that teacher salaries are the single biggest driver of our budget, and also my profound respect for the work our teachers do every day.
I have advocated repeatedly to minimize the financial hit to families of being in our public school system from a variety of fees, including full day kindergarten fees. I supported the 1-1 initiative under which we are providing computers to 8th graders and, eventually, all high school students, not because I am impressed by shiny new toys but because I believed we had gotten to a point with technology, and perhaps past the point, where that technology is absolutely vital to a child’s educational experience and putting up financial barriers to this experience runs counter to the ethos of public education.
I led the effort to ensure that the school committee recognized and used its statutory authority to have input on the approval of certain appointed positions, such as the special education director.
I have one mea culpa. In 2014, when administration presented a plan to reconfigure the elementary school music program, I did not push back hard enough. We were told it was not something we had the authority to vote on. Many of us, myself included, raised serious concerns, but we could have done more. Since then, especially armed with the knowledge of how harmful that reconfiguration has been to the music program overall, I have done everything in my power to listen to and support the student-led opposition to several proposals that threatened the arts in our schools, including a proposed cut to Middle School drama and more recently a proposed reduction of the High School choral teacher’s time.
My commitment to public education and good government is much bigger than my own family. My youngest child will be graduating from Sharon High School next year, but I will still be here. I will still be here because I understand that a quality education that fosters curiosity, creativity, and diversity for all of our children, rich, poor, or in between, is critical not only to the outcomes in their lives but to the very functioning of our community and our society. As John Adams said in the debates over adding a right to public education to the Massachusetts Constitution, “[t]his spirit [of liberty], however, without knowledge, would be little better than a brutal rage.” I believe that statement to be true even, and perhaps especially, today.
So that is who I am. I understand not everyone will agree with me on all of these points, but when you make a decision next Tuesday, I want to be sure it is an informed one. Thank you very much for reading this, and whatever else, please remember to vote on May 17.
