Priorities & Plans

I am running for re-election because I want the opportunity to continue to effect continuing improvement in our schools.
If re-elected, some things I hope to help the school committee accomplish are:
  1. Rebuild our administrative team by helping to hire strong leaders for the Director of Special Education, Assistant Superintendent, and the principal of the High School.
  2. Continue to improve the communication between the schools and the community and furthering the work we have started at making everything we do open and transparent to all.
  3. Support a long range plan for the equitable distribution of students in our schools.
  4. Build a strong relationship between the school committee and the teachers in our schools.
  5. Continue development of a long-range plan for the maintenance and repair of school buildings to ensure student safety and their continued use for many years.
 
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Fairness

To me, fair has always meant that everyone gets what they need. In addition, in our schools that means that every student also has the same opportunities and a great environment in which to learn. Right now the class sizes in our town are not at all equitable, due to the fact that our town demographics have shifted in the last 30 or so years since we redistricted. We need to continue an open and honest process about how best to place students into elementary schools so that there is a fair distribution of students and resources.

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Facilities

With the Thompson rebuild underway, we need to make plans for work needed at Stratton and then our elementary schools will be in good shape in continue to serve our needs for our K-5 students. It will be time in the very short term to start to look at the needs of our high school, which is going to need some major renovations to allow it to house our 9-12 students. And with our ever growing student population, the middle school is going to need to have some additions or modifications to enable it to serve the number of students expected in the coming years.

Faculty

Teachers make the biggest difference in a child’s education and Arlington has some of the best. We must continue to attract, retain, and continuously develop the best teachers at every level of our education system. The school committee needs to continue to improve relations with the teacher’s unions to ensure a strong, cohesive team that is supporting our students. We need to continue to ensure that the faculty knows and feels that they are appreciated and an important part of our community.

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Focus

The school committee must ensure that the students of the Arlington Public Schools and their academic success continues to be the focus of every decision and every conversation. The school committee, along with the help of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) has started a project to help us focus on student achievement and I am excited to have helped make this happen. I want to continue our work on this because if the school committee always keeps the students and their education foremost in our minds, we will continue to best serve our students and move our schools forward.