A year ago, I was honored to be elected in a special election to serve on the Concord and Concord Carlisle Regional School Committees. During my term, I have learned a great deal about our school system and town. Now, I am running for a full term on the School Committee because I love this community, care deeply about our children and their future–including that of my own three children and because I feel as though I’m just getting to work.
I’ve learned that being on the School Committee is hard – and so important. Our students and school districts are facing unprecedented challenges including an erupting mental health crisis among young people, learning loss from the pandemic, growing needs for specialized education programming, and urgency around realizing our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging goals. All of these challenges are occurring simultaneously with inflation and economic uncertainty.
I’ve also learned that Concord is not immune to the struggles and divisions plaguing our country. Even here in a town where we pride ourselves on our literary history, we have organized groups showing up to our meetings attempting to ban books in our school libraries.
Over the next three years on the committee we are preparing to build a new middle school, support our students’ growing needs, retain our superintendent and administrative team and think creatively about how we can continue to meet the town’s very high expectations of our schools while not placing an undue burden on taxpayers.
These are not small challenges. We are fortunate to have a strong administrative team, led by Dr. Laurie Hunter, excellent teachers and staff, and a resilient student body–and perhaps most importantly we are fortunate to be part of this community, which has demonstrated time and again its steadfast commitment to our students and their learning.
I’m proud to serve on the School Committee and would be honored to have your continued support on March 28.
