Please provide a brief biographical background on yourself. What should voters know about you?
The strongest asset that I bring to the position as a Northborough K-8 School Committee member is 36 years of educational experience coupled with business spirit, organizational skills and a strong commitment to serve the community of Northborough – the residents, educators and students. As a school committee member I have served on the following subcommittees: operational and capital budget, strategic planning, policy, curriculum, technology, and liaisons to the NEF (Northborough Educational Foundation), Northborough’s Board of Selectmen and Northborough Senior Citizens. I am a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. Elementary Education and M.Ed. from Salem State University, as a member of Pi Lambda Theta. I am a retired educator with 30 years service, retiring as a Literacy Specialist for Hopkinton Schools. For seven years I served as an appointee to the MCAS Assessment Development Committee (ELA Grades 4 & 5) to assist in the review of reading passages, test questions and scoring rubrics.
Why are you running?
As the candidate for reelection to the Northborough K-8 School Committee, I am asking for the continued support in my quest to further teamwork and collaboration among educators and community members to assure the best educational “rate of return” for each tax dollar invested for the education of our students PreK through eighth grade; address pandemic-era learning loss and its outcomes; to support social and emotional learning (SEL) so that students develop and enhance their social and emotional skills to succeed in school and life; to maintain and advocate for small class sizes and staff to support social and emotional learning; to make sure that both proficient students and those who may have difficulty in learning are provided with the most educational rewarding and challenging experiences; and, to work toward a common vision of educational excellence that delivers the appropriate services to all students through policy implementation and budget development.
What are the three biggest issues facing the Northborough School Committee?
The three issues are: (1) Continual support for social and emotional learning (SEL) so that students develop and enhance their social/ emotional skills to succeed in school and life; (2) Ensuring that the students/educators have access to modern facilities through a strong capital plan that invests in the schools’ infrastructure; and, (3) budgetary items that affect low class sizes, instructional technology and research based curriculum.
How would you address these issues?
I would address these issues through my position on the school committee with good supportive planning that is mindful of the financial constraints of the Town of Northborough. (1)The SEL Coordinator was hired in 2022 and continues to build coherence in the area of social/emotional learning but we still need to provide training and support to our behavior specialists, guidance counselors, psychologists and adjustment counselors. We need to continue to foster partnerships with outside organizations, e.g., Family Success Partnerships (FSP) . (2) To support the Massachusetts School Building Authority MSBA) process and partnership with The Town for the renovation of Peaslee School (60 years old). A statement of interest was submitted on March 23, 2023 to MSBA for a feasibility study. We need to look in future years of a feasibility study/modernization of Melican Middle School. (3) To maintain the schools’ current services while certain areas need to expand, e.g., math interventionists , health educators.
After more than two years, COVID-19 has started to recede. How do you believe the schools are handling the impact from the pandemic – mental health, MCAS scores, etc.?
The pandemic did have an impact on our students but the challenge was that not all students were affected and not all students have social/emotional needs. Therefore the challenge is to identify and then support those students and families to the outmost. We are assisting families and looking for patterns and trends. Statewide MCAS scores declined due to the pandemic and the Northborough Schools are being proactive in analyzing the scores and looking at how to best serve students with interventions. The administration and educators are reviewing the curriculum and practices to enhance learning so that each individual student achieves to their best ability.
