The Chamber recently asked the candidates up for election for School Committee a few questions to answer. Three candidates responded to The Chamber's questions, and each of their answers are below. Please vote on March 30th!
1) Please discuss one aspect of the School Committee's work and duties that you think has been successful and one aspect that you would work to improve once you are elected to the School Committee.
Shamus Brady Response: I think the School Committee has been successful in addressing the mascot issue. The change was long overdue and involving current students and a popular high school principal was part of what made the process successful. I would like to improve communication with parents and with that transparency. Many parents I have spoken with do not feel heard or even worse feel dismissed. The number of these parents is well beyond anecdotal. We need to have more frequent updates to reach our parents in a variety of ways including through social media. We also must do a better job of reaching out to citizens who do not currently have students in our public schools. This outreach will help increase their support and help us get the best results for all of our students.
Tom Hopcroft Response: We are in a better position as a district to support the needs of our students as a result of the School Committee making social-emotional learning (SEL) a top policy priority. The policy has resulted in social emotional coaches in our elementary schools, adjustment counselors in the high school, and a focus on SEL as our primary funding request under the Student Opportunity Act. While SEL has been a success in our district, I think there is an opportunity to integrate social emotional skills into the general ed classroom so they can be available to all kids and embedded in the curriculum. As for areas of improvement, I would like to see an increased focus on civics and anti-racist efforts -- including teacher professional development, hiring and curriculum -- especially in light of the rise in anti-Asian rhetoric and violence that we've seen across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Allison Kangas de Bellalta Response:
The School Committee has worked tirelessly this year to stay informed on the ever changing rules and regulations concerning school closures and safe school reopenings. There is no way we can doubt the dedication of each and every member of the committee. The Committee has also done a good job at validating the concerns of community members. That said, one aspect of the School Committee that I would work to improve is bringing more voices to the table. I would like to rotate the students that address the Committee on high school updates so we ensure all student concerns are heard. Also, I would like to hear more teacher voices at the meetings. I know teachers don't need another meeting to attend, but I would like to ensure they feel like their concerns are in the open and addressed by the district.
2) Once students have returned full time to the classroom, there will still be many decisions that need to be made regarding new protocols and policies that schools might consider adopting in the long term to keep our schools safe and promote a healthy community. How do you think the School Committee should make these decisions and how do you envision working with other elected boards, such as the Board of Health, to help inform these decisions?
Shamus Brady Response:
These decisions need to be made by consulting with the board of health and following the science. Working with all of our boards is important. Having more frequent joint meetings would serve our town well.
Tom Hopcroft Response:
The School Committee should communicate the issues and options under consideration to families and seek community input through structured (i.e., survey) and unstructured (i.e., narrative conversations, emails, public comments) means with sufficient granularity that we can understand not just the majority opinion but the concerns of those outside the majority. If we understand the "decision drivers" behind each perspective, we can seek to address the underlying constraints and move people towards a consensus. The Committee should communicate, collaborate, and both seek and share information with other elected boards (i.e., Select Board, Planning Committee, Board of Heath) and stakeholder groups (i.e., PACs, teachers’ union, philanthropies) in town. The Committee must have a fulsome understanding of the issues in order to make the most informed decisions, and we must ensure policy decisions are then communicated to the community.
Allison Kangas de Bellalta Response:
The School Committee should continue to follow the science when making these decisions. CDC guidelines and DESE guidelines have gotten us where we are now. Now is the time to take those guidelines and sit down with the Board of Health, Teachers' Reps, and the School Reopening Task Force to plan for the next steps in our district's future. I am proud to say that by following the science, Children's Own School has been able to stay open full time for the 20-21 school year.
What are two challenges facing our school district (across the board or at the elementary, middle or highschool levels) and what would you do to address them?
Shamus Brady Response:
We need to rebuild two of our elementary schools. I would continue to partner with the MSBA for Lynch and make sure that we are applying to them for Muraco each year until we are accepted. Moving forward I would work to develop and commit to a concrete and detailed plan of when we plan to renovate our replace each of our buildings over time. We should never be in this situation again where so many of our schools are in need of serious work at the same time. A lack of planning got us here and strong planning can prevent it from happening again.
Another challenge is providing both support our challenge to our students. Many of our students are ready to be accelerated and take on more challenging content but we are too often teaching to the middle. At the same time, a significant number of our students are struggling both academically and with mental health challenges. To address both of these we need to foster innovation among our teachers and fully access the full resources of our town. We need to create a town-wide mentorship program to support our students. By reaching out to the many incredible citizens of our town we could work to bring a greater challenge to our students in our schools. Partnering with local businesses and with the town government to solve problems would be an amazing opportunity for our students.
Tom Hopcroft Response:
First, while getting our students back to full in-person learning is a priority, it is only the tip of the iceberg for resuming a more regular learning environment. I have spoken with many parents in both hybrid and remote and our students are all over the map in terms of social-emotional, mental health, executive functioning (especially the middle schoolers) and learning loss. We need to understand where our students are today and build support programs and scaffolding to help them have a smooth reentry back to more regular in-person learning. Second, thanks to WFEE's "powerED Up!" campaign, we were in a better position than many districts in terms of the technology we needed this past year. In addition to technology, we need more teacher professional development, sharing of innovations learned this past year, and more interdisciplinary or applied courses. One of the first things I will do to address this challenge is to help get quality staff hired for the Coordinator of Digital Learning & Innovation as well as the Administrator of IT Services and Network Manager roles.
Allison Kangas de Bellalta Response:
Our district is facing significant facilities challenges in the coming years. The Lynch Elementary School will begin the feasibility study process with the MSBA and Muraco's aging facility needs to be maintained until it is chosen by the MSBA to be updated. I was teaching at the WHS while the feasibility study was going on and was part of the design review process. I would like to use my experience there and maintaining the facilities at Children's Own School to guide our district through these challenges.
Secondly, I believe we need to review our k-12 curriculum to ensure we are incorporating culturally diverse voices and meeting the needs of all of our learners. We have teachers who are already leading the way in these areas. We should be helping them share their good work with the whole district.
