Things that I’d like a do-over on all involve external communication, which lies beyond the School Committee’s mandated roles and responsibilities but definitely serves to help families in town better understand both. For instance, the limits on any School Committee’s action – financial, evaluative of the Superintendent and goals, and district level policy – are not well known or understood by the vast majority of residents, of any town. That said, there is a great benefit to open lines of communication with families, and given this past year, now I strongly believe a great need for the School Committee to connect more frequently and accessibly with residents.

Posting updates, reminders, FAQs, or having periodic “office hours” can all go a long way to avoid and/or alleviate much of the understandable frustration some families have expressed, most vocally by those now running as challengers to me and Mr. Canfield. Had there been such platforms in place, we may, for example not have challengers stating the School Committee demonstrated a lack of leadership by not boycotting state mandates. In reality, it is illegal to shirk state mandates; they can withhold funds to the district. Also, I would never use our kids as pawns to make a political point. Atop that, after much listening, research, and reflection I, for one, strongly disagree with the health and safety policy change our challengers advocated this year.

The 3 biggest challenges we’re facing in the next five years include:

(A) continuing to assess and address students’ learning needs and social / emotional development coming off a full year of disruption – data and progress monitoring over time are essential;

(B) providing ever more targeted and inclusive interventions to all students to keep them developing as best they can on all fronts. These first two challenges have grown over the last two years and plans currently in-process include shifting to full adoption of standard measures for student growth and learning, fully embracing co-teaching models at all grades for special education, and fully integrating the oft talked about MTSS model for all classrooms and schools. In short, all this means we’re growing a teaching model that meets kids where they academically and developmentally are and then offers help without pulling them out of class. All this will take 4-5 years to fully realize in a meaningful way for all kids at all grades levels.

(C) Lastly, in some facets, our schools – broadly in MA – do not fully address the range of ways kids learn and the range of ways they’ll eventually find success in the workforce. Looking at the balance of applied vs. purely content based learning, career readiness, and how we grade and measure success will evolve over the next decade. Continuing to increase practical project-based experiences for kids and, in areas, shifting toward standards-based grading will be important features our schools evolve.

The biggest lasting challenge from these prior years’ disruptions are to students’ overall engagement – their “buy-in” to all that school can offer. We see this in higher absenteeism, lower participation rates in clubs, activities and sports. and the related increases in students’ depression and/or anxiety. Much of this stems from the comparative isolation students and families experienced during the pandemic. The biggest health shift comes from having and maintaining a sense of purpose and belonging–isolation debases students’ sense of both. Keeping schools open and in-person, getting kids involved with their school, their peers off screens, and their community are some of the most impactful ways that a school system to help our kids in this regard.