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[Editorial Note: As Sudbury Weekly has done in prior years, we offered the opportunity for all candidates in contested races in the Town Election to answer a few questions. We run any and all responses we receive.]
What is your vision of what public education should be?
Public education should be an inclusive, nurturing environment that fosters curiosity, innovation, a love of learning, and individual growth, ensuring all students can thrive and succeed. It should provide equitable access to high-quality, engaging educational resources and learning experiences that meet the unique needs and potential of every student to develop their intellectual, emotional, and social growth. Educators should receive continuous support and development to ensure they are using innovative teaching methods and best practices. Strong partnerships should be fostered between educators, families, and community members to support student learning and development. Fundamentally, public education should serve as an enriching journey that equips students with the essential knowledge, skills, and values needed to successfully navigate life’s challenges. With a career dedicated to business leadership and education, I’d be honored to support SPS in continuing to meet this vision for public education.
Some reports indicate that the recovery from Covid-19 learning loss will take many more years. What is your understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on SPS students? Is the SPS response satisfactory in your opinion?
The pandemic led to varying degrees of learning loss and beyond academics, students have faced social, emotional, and mental health challenges. The recovery is a complex, ongoing process including targeted interventions, adjustments in curriculum pacing to address gaps, reinstated community engagement opportunities, and increased support for mental health and well-being. SPS has made steady progress, but work must continue. For example, MCAS scores have not all recovered from pre-pandemic levels, such as 5th grade math and science and ELA in grades 5, 6, and 7. In particular, additional recovery efforts may need to be made at Loring, with 3rd grade students meeting expectations dropping from 75% to 57% in ELA and 69% to only 44% in math. Deeper dives are needed to ensure support is in place to continue to make gains, monitor effectiveness of interventions, and adjust strategies based on data and feedback to ensure a successful long-term recovery.
Is the SPS Library Collection Development and Book Challenge policy serving the district well? Would you change it in any way?
I support the existing SPS Library Collection Development and Book Challenge policies, which adhere to Massachusetts and U.S. laws. These policies guarantee nondiscrimination in education and protect students’ rights to access information. I’m deeply committed to ensuring we create a safe, welcoming, supportive, inclusive environment for all students where diversity is celebrated. As part of this, we must ensure all students have access to diverse views and perspectives. The school committee policy does allow parents to raise complaints, and questioned materials won’t be removed as that would prevent all students from accessing them, but it is possible that access to the materials can be denied to the students of the parents making the complaint, if they so desire. Banning books compromises diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and may result in legal expenses that taxpayers will have to bear. I am going to leave you with this display at Curtis Middle School which warms my heart:
Is the district doing enough to make sure SPS students benefit from the most rigorous, science-backed curriculum available?
Drawing from my extensive background in curriculum development, I have some concerns and am eager to delve deeper into identifying potential areas for improvement. Key considerations include choosing the right curriculum, implementing it effectively, providing teacher professional development, evaluating student outcomes, gathering stakeholder feedback, and ensuring equity and accessibility. For ELA, the curriculum reported by MA DESE states SPS is using a curriculum that does not meet expectations and lacks appropriate complexity and SPS reported to Boston Globe that they are developing their own reading curriculum. For K-5, Bridges Math only partially meets standards alignment and classroom application expectations. For many content areas, SPS reports developing their own curriculum, prompting concerns about quality of material, ease of differentiating to meet diverse needs, effective implementation, timeline for rolling out, and associated costs. In addition, there’s an acknowledged need for a World Language Curriculum review within SPS that has not yet commenced. Curriculum reviews must happen to ensure SPS is delivering high quality differentiated instruction.
Is the SPS budget appropriately funded and structured, in your opinion, to meet the needs of every student in the district?
Determining the budget’s adequacy and structure demands a collaborative approach, involving strategic reviews, an understanding of past decision-making trade-offs, and an in-depth analysis of long-term planning. Given this framework, I see several areas poised for improvement.
Evaluate and Reassess: Perform strategic reviews of past initiatives by evaluating performance metrics and the effectiveness of programs so any adjustments to resource allocations can be made.
Strategically Plan: Engage in meticulous, forward-looking planning, including looking at infrastructure maintenance and improvement, to guarantee long-term sustainability and continuous improvement.
Review and Innovate: Regularly assess the educational quality of curriculum, materials, and support systems and explore whether innovative programs can enhance learning experience and outcomes for students. Moreover, evaluate if minimal investments now could result in substantial future savings.
Allow for Adaptability: Look at whether the budget is structured with flexibility to adapt to unforeseen challenges, such as larger than expected enrollment increases.
The teacher contract will come up during your term if you are elected. How would you describe the current relationship between the school committee and SPS teachers? What would be your approach to the relationship between the school committee and teachers in advance of those negotiations?
Building a relationship centered on understanding, collaboration, and strategic planning is essential for conducting fair, equitable, and timely negotiations. The foundation of SPS’s success lies in a positive partnership between the school committee and teachers, marked by mutual respect and a united goal of providing exceptional education. I advocate for a proactive and cooperative approach to forthcoming negotiations, stressing the importance of initiating discussions early to grasp our teachers’ priorities and concerns fully. By focusing on data-driven methods that reflect our educational aims and fiscal realities, and by gleaning insights from comparable districts, we can steer our conversations effectively. Negotiations involve trade-offs, where investing resources in one area necessitates reallocating them from another, highlighting the importance of strategic decision-making to balance priorities. Establishing a platform for continuous, open communication is crucial for cultivating trust and transparency and securing outcomes that favor our students, respect our teachers’ dedication, and guarantee the long-term viability of our educational system.
What are your defining experiences with diversity, equity and inclusion in a school/educational setting? What did you learn from your experiences?
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with remarkable organizations dedicated to enhancing DEI within educational settings. I’ve collaborated with and spoken at the annual conference of the Association on Higher Education and Disability. I’ve led the development of courses on working with students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. I served as the founding board member of a network of charter schools in underserved communities in CA. I founded and ran a teacher preparation company that focused on increasing diversity in the teacher workforce. These roles enabled me to work closely with nonprofits and institutions nationwide, including the Center for Equity in Urban Education, the Academy for Urban School Leadership, Teach for America, Troops to Teachers, and RISE Mississippi. Each of these experiences has enriched my understanding of DEI challenges and filled me with optimism about the ongoing, passionate efforts in this space. I’ve also learned that meaningful change in DEI requires sustained commitment and action.
What is, in your opinion, the most important responsibility of a school committee member?
The foremost responsibility of a school committee member is to ensure every student has access to an equitable and high-quality education, tailored to their unique needs. Fulfilling this responsibility involves advocating for impactful policies, ensuring the equitable allocation of resources so all students can access the necessary support and opportunities for learning and growth, and engaging with the entire community to nurture a collaborative environment. School committee members must hold the school system accountable for reaching its objectives, maintain transparency in decision-making, assess the efficacy of educational programs, and execute prudent financial planning. Ultimately, the role of a school committee member is to diligently work towards aligning the school system with the community’s educational values. With my experience, including as a CEO of ed tech companies, an education professor, and a collaborator with MA DESE, school districts, and universities, I have the expertise to fulfill these responsibilities in collaboration with my fellow committee members.