Please provide a brief biographical background on yourself. What should voters know about you?
I am a mom of 3 wonderful children; a 4th grader at MSES, a two year old, and a four year old. We moved to grafton 7 years ago from San Diego, where I taught both middle school science and community college. Tufts vet school is what brought us here, but the community is what kept us long after graduation. I am currently working as a veterinarian at both Main Street Animal Hospital and Riverlin Animal Hospital. I am excited to take my experience in education and my passion for preparing children for success in life, not just in school, to the next level.
Why are you running?
I am running for School Committee because I love Grafton public schools and think that they are doing amazing work. I want to be a part of it, but also to bring some new perspectives and ideas to the table. I am passionate about evaluating the methods that we use to measure student success and teacher success. I would like to see expansion of preschool programing in Grafton as it is a critical component of success in the early grades. I would like to see expansion of overarching and system wide mental health services and curriculum at all grade levels. I would like to continue the work of expanding diversity and inclusion curriculum. I would like to explore the possibility of a language dual immersion program. I want to make sure that teachers feel supported and heard. Overall, Grafton is an amazing district and we have an opportunity to bring our schools and our students to the next level.
What are the three biggest issues facing Grafton?
In my opinion, the 3 biggest issues facing Grafton’s schools are; 1- Mental health at all levels, 2- Inequity of preschool programming, and 3- Expanding second language learning/ dual immersion programming
If elected, what would you do to address these issues?
1- I would push for a K-12 mental health curriculum and individualized plans that follow each student from entering GPS to exiting. Having a safe space and place for even our youngest kids to feel seen and supported would be monumental- school is the only safe space for many kids and we don’t want a single kid to fall through the cracks. Covid was a scary time for many reasons, but for the kids that may not have a safe or supportive home, it really highlighted that we have no formal system set up to support the mental health of each individual. 2 and 3- We should be able to offer preschool programming to every Grafton child. Period. Every student should have the opportunity to learn a foreign language starting early and continuing throughout their lives. These goals do not have a quick fix. I want to start the discussion and process of hammering out the details.
