Looking Back…
Since joining the committee in 2010, in the aftermath of the Great Recession and shortly after the tragic Alenson death in 2007, I have tried to be an agent of positive change and an advocate for continuously improving our school district. I have always worked hard as a committee member to sustain a high level of academics, student services, and safety for all of our students; all the while assuring the ongoing financial strength of our school in the face of challenging times.
In 2010, it was apparent to me and many others that the old financial model had shifted, and it was necessary to find a way to fund the school sufficiently without the previous reliance on overrides. When it came to budgets, L-S had a Yes culture which had led to having one of the highest-paid faculties in the state and a reliance on overrides for sustaining the built-in operational expenses growth model. In my first year, I joined the negotiations subcommittee and participated in a sometimes contentious but otherwise successful contract negotiation which halted the previous model of unsustainable faculty pay increases. I have been on four of the last five negotiating teams and we have worked hard to negotiate contracts that are more fiscally responsible and equitable for both the Teachers Association and the school district.
While the issue of unfunded post-retirement health benefits may not be an overly exciting issue for most, it is one that documents an enormous financial liability that threatens the long-term viability of the District. I have had the pleasure to work across the cost centers on this issue and I am proud of the work we have been able to do so far in creating a funded trust fund for L-S which helps protect us from the threat of these long-term unfunded liabilities. I currently chair the Trust Fund committee and while the School Committee voted with the Superintendent to reduce funding this last fiscal year, I look forward to restoring the funding at the previous level and to possibly increasing this funding in the future.
Another initiative I am proud to have been a part of began in 2012, when an issue was brought to the attention of the committee about a glaring gender disparity in LS Sports. The issue brought to the L-S School Committee by Friends of L-S Softball (FOLSS) was about the deplorable condition of the girl’s softball field. It didn’t take more than a perfunctory comparative look at the boys’ baseball fields and the girls’ softball field to realize there was a glaring imbalance and probably what could easily have been a Title IX infraction. The field had been in terrible shape for years and was a safety issue for anyone playing there. Ground was broken on the L-S Softball Field in the summer of 2013 and by March 2014 the field was completed. It had taken two years but the L-S School Committee with the help of FOLSS and many others in the community had finally built what is now one of the signature fields at LS.
Another initiative I am proud to have been part of was the creation of the L-S Safety Review Subcommittee in March 2018. This was implemented while I was Chair of the School Committee and was initially received with mixed enthusiasm. The impetus for the formation of the subcommittee was the Parkland, FL school shooting and the walk-out of 400 LS students in reaction to their perception of the handling of a sexual assault case on campus.
The resulting meetings of the subcommittee created a welcome dialogue about safety at LS and heard many diverse perspectives on campus safety as well as discussions about the social-emotional needs of the student body. The meetings of the subcommittee also opened a dialog with the Sudbury Police Department and ultimately led to the long-overdue installation of a police officer as a Student Resource Officer or SRO, a position mandated by law. The presence now of a Student Resource Officer on the campus has been very well received and affords the district and the communities a higher degree of safety for our most precious assets, our children.
For the last two years we have been in a pandemic. Our students have been incredibly impacted and I am in awe of their ability to constantly shift and pivot as was required of them. This is by no means was easy for them and their families. I also applaud the hard work by all of those in the District, the Administration, the faculty and and staff for working together to keep our District safe and allow the continuity of instruction. L-S was one of the first districts to roll out a comprehensive COVID-19 testing campaign. And while we learned that we could offer remote learning we also learned we have much to learn about that form of instruction. In fact, I hope we have learned from that instructional shift ways to create better instruction overall utilizing the tools we used in necessity, and to use the event as a way to create better instruction using these new technologies.
There is no more important partnership in a student’s educational experience than the connection between home and school. Lessons learned early by our students’ families have led the dialog about how important it was to return to face-to-face instruction, the importance of removing the mask mandates, and shifting our COVID protocols to that of the State. If not, we run the risk of walling ourselves off from a key constituency and run the risk of not hearing the concerns we should be hearing. We need to restore a trusting relationship and partnership with our students’ families.