LWV Voter Guide Responses

The League of Women Voters (LWV) of Newton publishes Voters Guides before each election to help voters learn more about candidates. For this Voters Guide guide, they invited all candidates to answer a set of questions relevant to their office. You can visit their guide and click on my name to see my candidate profile!

• Question 1: What prompted you to run for School Committee?

  I graduated from the Newton Schools and my son’s NPS experience has been great because his teachers have been great. The last five years, however, have been really frustrating as a parent and Newtonian.

  We have gone from one school crisis to the next (COVID, the strike, the 25/26 budget fight). With a new Mayor and a new school committee I think we have a unique opportunity to rebuild trust lost since COVID and support our Superintendent in updating our curriculum and creating transparency.

  I’m running because I care about the education our kids get and I want to give back to the school system that gave me so much.

• Question 2: What is your understanding of the role of the School Committee in the operations of Newton Public Schools?

  The Newton School Committee has four official roles:

  1. It’s responsible for hiring and overseeing the performance of the superintendent

  2. Reviewing and approving the schools’ budget

  3. Setting priorities and policies for the schools

  4. Negotiating the contract with the teachers’ union. The School Committee is also a critical bridge between the needs of our schools, our parents, and NPS administration.

  As your Ward 6 representative, I will be a voice for putting our kids first, for following evidence and making practical, data driven decisions about how to improve the quality of the education our kids get everyday.

• Question 3: How do you define educational excellence in the Newton Public Schools?

  Our updated NPS motto, “Where every student can thrive,” is a great place to start. The opportunity for our kids to learn and grow up with students with diverse life experiences is integral to what makes public education so important. The challenge (and opportunity) is to provide all or those students the challenge, support and growth opportunities they need to be the best version of themselves. Whether that means a career in the trades or an Ivy League degree, voters are consistent - they want their kids, their grandchildren and the kids living next door to get a world class education (and a little homework never hurt).

• Question 4: In tight budget years, how would you prioritize funding allocations, and what budget priorities do you think are important?

  An exceptional education requires:

  1. A modern curriculum with benchmarks for measuring student achievement. Without that we can’t know if we are doing right by our kids.

  2. Exceptional educators. Where teachers choose to build a career goes beyond headline salaries. Benefits need to be competitive, in-classroom support for social emotional learning and curriculum must be robust and professional development opportunities need to be compelling.

  NPS should be a rich, diverse learning environment academically and culturally and it’s frustrating that we can’t fund everything, but it’s the School Committee’s job to help NPS prioritize.