On Tuesday, November 3, 2015, voters will cast their ballots for School Committee Members in Wards 1, 3 and 4. The Somerville Times asked each of the qualified candidates to answer six questions on their views relating to their possible tenure as Committee Members, as well as provide a brief biography of themselves. Their responses are presented here in alphabetical order based on their last names. As of our publication deadline, Vivaldo Meneses Jr., running for the Ward 3 seat, has not responded to the questionnaire.

 

Andre Green – Ward 4

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: What do you see as the role of the School Committee Member in representing their ward?

Foremost, any School Committee Member needs to serve as a tireless advocate for ensuring that the students of their ward are getting the best possible education, from any school in the city. Given the strong neighborhood ties at both the Healey and the WHCIS, Ward 4’s representative owes it to the community to give a bit more attention to them. Additionally, members have what I’ve been calling “soft power”, the informal ability to draw attention to issues, bring people together to solve them and raise the profile of things going on in the community.

 

Question #2: What is your opinion on the importance of MCAS?

I’m a data driven guy by profession; I appreciate the value of standards and assessment. But I also know faulty assessments lead to faulty behaviors. Assessing a school based on standardized tests is like assessing a marriage based on anniversary gifts: It’s nice to do well (and money helps a lot) but it doesn’t tell you about all the things needed for long-term success. I want to work towards a multi-faceted evaluation system with a combination of qualitative and quantitative measuring tools-in which the use of standardized tests (that don’t drive the curriculum) may play a role.

 

Question #3: What is the most pressing school related issue now facing your ward?

Somerville schools have been improving for years now. The challenge before us now is making sure every student benefits from that improvement. It’s still too hard to for students to get the Special Education services they need; too many parents still face barriers to active participation in their children’s educations; and too many children still come to school-through no fault of their own-unprepared to make the most of their time in school. We then put our teachers in the impossible position of deciding which students get their attention-to all students’ detriment.

 

Question#4: With the high rate of substance abuse in the city, at what grade level do you feel drug education should start?

A lot of ‘substance abuse’ education is about teaching coping skills and good decision making. And that starts from Kindergarten. If you’re teaching our students good critical thinking and decision making skills, as well as providing adequate emotional supports, then substance education starting in 5th grade will fall on fertile ground.

 

Question #5: Do you think the city budget allows for the programs needed in the school system or is too much money going to administration?

The focus of every dollar spent by SPS should always be to ensure teachers and students have the resources they need to thrive. It is always my goal to keep those resources as close to the classroom as possible. That being said, anyone who has run a business knows that totally starving overhead can cost you money in the long-term. Allowing teachers to keep their focus on teaching requires that the district manages its $75 million well. The estimated 3% spent on Central Administration seems like a reasonable cost to do that.

 

Question#6: What do you see as the most important role of the new superintendent in relationship to the school committee?

By law, the Superintendent is the CEO of SPS and responsible for the day to day management of the schools, while the School Committee sets policies and evaluates her performance. I am eager to work with Superintendent Skipper, who I think was an inspired choice. There’s a strong history of collaboration between Superintendent and Committee that I expect will continue. However, I anticipate a learning curve as she figures out the best way to support a relatively new board (only one member will have more than 3 years’ experience) and while we figure out how to best support her.

 

Bio:

As the grandson of sharecroppers and the first person in his family to complete a BA, Andre Green knows the power of a quality education to create opportunities and change lives. After graduating college at 19, Andre moved to Somerville to teach 5th grade at the former St. Benedict’s school in East Somerville, a job he calls “the hardest thing he’s ever done.” After teaching, he worked briefly as a case manager in a juvenile detention center, teaching parenting and substance awareness classes. Spending five years as an IT consultant, he worked with schools to implement technological solutions for both management and curriculum.

For the last six years Andre has worked at YouthBuild USA, an organization that helps disadvantaged youths get their GED or High School Diploma while developing job skills and building affordable housing in their communities. He’s spent time working as both a data analyst and in Federal Advocacy-recently helping convince a Republican House to spend $2 million more than the President requested on disconnected youth.

Andre serves on the board of the Welcome Project, an organization committed to improving the status and well-being of Somerville’s immigrant population, as well as serving on the Somerville Human Rights Commission, working to protect constitutional, civil, and human rights of residents. An avid trivia fan, Andre is a past champion on the television show “Jeopardy!” Andre lives with his wife Jessica and their daughter Madelynn on Governor Winthrop Road in a house that has been in her family since the 1950s.

 

Jamie O’Leary – Ward 4

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: What do you see as the role of the School Committee Member in representing their ward?

As School Committee Members our ultimate goal should be ensuring all Somerville students have the best possible education. One facet of this is making sure there is open communication between residents and the School Committee; after all, we cannot answer how decisions will affect our students without input from their families. As a School Committee Member my role will be to reach out to and seek the input of the residents of my ward and then to represent their views on the Committee. My role will also be to make sure the residents of my ward have access to information about issues facing Somerville Public Schools.

 

Question #2: What is your opinion on the importance of MCAS?

In my opinion our ultimate goal should be fewer and fairer assessments, but I don’t believe we should eliminate them all together. Standardized assessments can be a useful tool for teachers, administrators, students, parents, and community members; however, they must be used in a productive way and we must eliminate the high-stakes and stress associated with them.  MCAS should not be the only measure used to evaluate students, teachers, or schools.  Standardized assessments should not be a barrier to graduation. It’s an important tool to have as a check-up but it’s not the only way students’ success should be measured.

 

Question #3: What is the most pressing school related issue now facing your ward?

Teacher (and staff) retention in all the Somerville Public Schools is the most pressing issue facing my ward; too many teachers begin their careers in Somerville and quickly leave once they have the experience on their resume to go to another district that offers greater support to its faculty and staff. I met many highly qualified teachers that live in Ward 4 and commute hours every week to teach in districts like Brookline and Lexington. We need to attract and retain the best teachers and support staff in our district if we want to give our students the best education.

 

Question#4: With the high rate of substance abuse in the city, at what grade level do you feel drug education should start?

Drug education should start in elementary school with a developmentally appropriate curriculum in the early grades, moving on to a more comprehensive and in depth curriculum as students progress through the program. From my experience working with this age group I feel they are curious and mature enough to handle this topic if approached appropriately. I also think that all teachers, regardless of the grade or subject they teach, should be trained to be comfortable talking about drugs with students, as often students see, and should be encouraged to see, their teachers as a safe resource to talk to.

 

Question #5: Do you think the city budget allows for the programs needed in the school system or is too much money going to administration?

We can always do more for our students, ask anyone in education and they will give you a handful of ideas for programs we can add that will benefit our students. However, we cannot do any of those things without the appropriate administrative support. We need a strong administration to deal with facilities, student safety and well-being, scheduling, curriculum support and more. It is important that as a district we are always examining this delicate balance and making sure our administrative roles are filled with individuals that are efficient and effective.

 

Question#6: What do you see as the most important role of the new superintendent in relationship to the school committee?

One of the greatest assets I feel Mary Skipper brings to Somerville is her experience creating schools that are ready for the future. During her time with the Boston Pubic Schools she helped create a new high school that was based in technology. As Somerville takes on the task of renovating our high school and upgrading various other schools in the city she will be a great asset in making sure that our schools are providing our students with an education that will prepare them for the future.

 

Bio:

My name is Jamie O’Leary and I am running for School Committee in Ward 4. I come from a family of educators; both my parents were teachers in the NYC public schools for close to 30 years. My mother worked her way up from teaching to be an assistant principal, and has always been an inspiration to me. I have an undergraduate degree in Art Education and a Master of Education degree in Special Education. I was a classroom teacher for 5 years, two of which were in the Somerville public schools, and have worked directly with youth for close to 10 years.

When my husband and I moved to Massachusetts and began to explore the area we immediately fell in love with Somerville. We like the convenience and diversity of an urban environment, but were really attracted to the sense of community in Somerville. We love that we know our neighbors and that we all look out for each other.

Now that I am working for a non-profit in educational policy I saw the opening on the School Committee as a perfect opportunity for me to contribute my knowledge and experience to the community. I have experience in the Somerville Public Schools working with the students, teachers, and staff. As a School Committee Member I will reach out to and involve a wide variety of community members before making any decision and, most importantly, I will make every decision with one question in my mind: “what is best for the students?”

jamiesue.wix.com/joward4

 

Lee Erica Palmer – Ward 3

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: What do you see as the role of the School Committee Member in representing their ward?

The School Committee is responsible for setting the overall educational policy and budget for our schools, and must be responsive to – and reflective of – the priorities of our families and the tax-payers. To successfully represent Ward 3 on the School Committee, I pledge to remain actively engaged in the community, attend and host community events (not just school-related), door-knock constituents to discuss issues and answer questions, and ensure that my contact information is available so I can always be reached for questions or comments. I also see the role as being a leader on the issues and values I hold most dear.

 

Question #2: What is your opinion on the importance of MCAS?

I am a strong advocate for multi-metric testing and assessments when determining optimal outcomes and how to achieve them. We need to know how our students and schools are doing, and how our district compares to other districts, but I am deeply concerned that our kids are being over-tested. The focus on a single-metric, high stakes test (i.e. MCAS) naturally steers curriculum away from real learning time and instead focuses on teaching to the test. I also fear that companies pursuing profits, rather than educational research and teacher input, are driving this push for increased testing. I believe we should limit testing and assessments to those that meet our district’s needs, not the interests of for-profit companies.

 

Question #3: What is the most pressing school related issue now facing your ward?

Besides the issue of over-testing, I believe we must prioritize health and wellness programming in our schools because healthy, well-fed, and active kids learn better. We serve our kids high-sugar foods and are down to just ten minutes of recess per day in most of our schools, yet the research shows us just how important healthy eating and exercise are for effective learning. Our district is doing great work to promote increased physical activity and nutrition education through additional funding from the PEP Grant, the Somerville Farm to School Project, and strong partnerships with UMass Extension and community groups. To be most effective, nutrition education and appreciation for fresh, local, healthy food must start in the earliest grades, and I will ensure that we continue to focus on this, while also improving the quality of the food we offer in our cafeterias.

 

Question#4: With the high rate of substance abuse in the city, at what grade level do you feel drug education should start?

Drug education, mental health supports and social-emotional learning all go hand-in-hand when it comes to supporting our children and the school community. I will be a strong advocate for appropriate funding to ensure our children have the knowledge and the opportunities they need to make healthy choices and feel good about their future. Age-appropriate education and information about making healthy and safe choices can and should begin early in the public school process.

 

Question #5: Do you think the city budget allows for the programs needed in the school system or is too much money going to administration?

High quality educational programming is not inexpensive. But I think we have made great investments in our schools, particularly in the last ten years, and I am encouraged to see the fruit of that investment as we are now the top urban performing district in the state and more families are choosing to stay and keep their kids in our schools. A high quality administration is necessary to guide and support the hard work of the front-line teaching staff. But, if elected to the School Committee, I pledge to always carefully scrutinize our school budget and actively gather input from the public to ensure that taxpayers’ money is being used judiciously in the interests of our children first.

 

Question#6: What do you see as the most important role of the new superintendent in relationship to the school committee?

If elected, I am excited to have the opportunity to work with the new superintendent, Mary Skipper, as she brings a high level of experience, enthusiasm, and commitment to excellence to our district. I see the role of the School Committee as collaborating with the office of the superintendent, and all administrators and teachers, to achieve the best education possible for our children, while also holding the superintendent accountable for success in all aspects of her job as she leads our school community. As a member of the school committee I will actively bring all issues and concerns to the superintendent’s office to ensure they are addressed swiftly.

 

Bio:

Lee Erica Palmer is an educator, community organizer, and civil rights attorney who has been an active and proud resident of Somerville’s Spring Hill neighborhood for 11 years. Lee’s son, Andrew, was born in Somerville and attends the Unidos program at the East Somerville Community School, the city’s two-way English/Spanish language and cultural immersion program.

In her role as an educator, Lee taught high school Spanish in the Boston Public Schools. More recently she served as Executive Director of Kesher, a Somerville-based after-school and pre-school program. Additionally, she has worked with the Somerville School Department and the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative on projects and events that encouraged health and wellness and family involvement.

Lee is running for School Committee because she believes our schools have many strengths, but she also sees many areas for growth and opportunity. Specifically, Lee will be a strong advocate for testing and assessments that are right for our community, increased physical activity and nutrition education in the schools, expansion of our multilingual services to better engage with all our families, and high-quality and affordable out-of-school childcare and enrichment opportunities.

Please see http://leeericapalmer.org for Lee’s complete bio and position on the issues.

 

Steve Roix – Ward 1

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: What do you see as the role of the School Committee Member in representing their ward?

The School Committee Member represents the people of their Ward in the setting the vision, goals, policies and reviewing and approving an annual budget for the District, collective bargaining, employing and evaluating the Superintendent. The role and authority of the School Committee is deliberately and precisely limited by state law. This results in our SC having many meetings and discussions about things that we don’t directly control, yet its imperative for local democracy to have representatives well versed in the details, so they can be trusted to make the big decisions – setting goals, reviewing/approving the budget, evaluating/hiring the Superintendent.

 

Question #2: What is your opinion on the importance of MCAS?

Standardized testing, used in conjunction with the local “formative” assessments, is useful for identifying where our students and teachers need the most support. MCAS is far from “comprehensive” and I disagree with the punitive measures taken against teachers and schools for poor scores; and with using it as a graduation requirement There are too many questions about standardized tests – identifying areas for improvement is one thing – but we should not override our educators and create a graduation barrier. In Somerville so many of our students have overcome so many challenges to get themselves through school – we shouldn’t be creating another.

 

Question #3: What is the most pressing school related issue now facing your ward?

The number 1 problem for Ward 1 right now is affordability – I’m not sure how our families who rent and don’t have high incomes are getting by, but I know it’s getting tougher and tougher.

Not unique to Ward 1, I would say space – we’re running low in some K-8 schools. More young families seem to be choosing Somerville schools if they’re able. We’ve had class sizes significantly lower than the state average for a few years and we’ve been able to offer most families their first choice K-8 school. Class sizes may need to creep up a bit and more families may not always get their first choice.

 

Question#4: With the high rate of substance abuse in the city, at what grade level do you feel drug education should start?

It’s never too early to help our students develop the social and emotional skills they need to make better choices about substance abuse later. We should – we will -teach our students about the devastating consequences of substance abuse. It’s not as simple as giving kids a lecture about how “drugs are bad”. Abuse and addiction are complicated -most addicts know its “bad” and yet addiction traps them anyway . This needs to be tied into a larger mental health and wellness competency curriculum. We have social emotional curriculum starting in Pre-K, maybe not directly about “drugs”, but its related. I have heard our community loud and clear on this and I want to tap the expertise and energy of organizations like Somerville Overcoming Addiction.

 

Question #5: Do you think the city budget allows for the programs needed in the school system or is too much money going to administration?

I think the Mayor and Board of Aldermen support our schools financially. To their credit, its one of the areas where they have found near universal common ground in recent years. Part of that credit should go to our previous Superintendent and our (still current) Finance Director, who earned the trust of the administration and the Board because everyone knew they didn’t waste a penny. Its important that the next School Committee and the new Superintendent continue to maintain that trust and I believe that we will.

 

Question#6: What do you see as the most important role of the new superintendent in relationship to the school committee?

I think the School Committee needs to come to an understanding with the Superintendent on a vision and long-term goals of the District. Having interviewed and now worked with the Superintendent as well as having heard feedback from the Community, I am confident we made the right choice, she is the leader to take us to the next level. Any District is better off when the School Committee and the Superintendent are pulling in the same direction. That necessitates clear communication and trust; and there is no better place to start that conversation than establishing common goals and vision.

 

Bio:

My wife Julie and I have lived on Pinckney Street since 2004. We have two boys, both enrolled at the East Somerville Community School: 7 year-old (second-grade) Troy and 5 year-old (kindergarten) Henry.

I grew up and attended public school in the North Quabbin “mill-town” of Athol. While we were far from wealthy – I was a “reduced-lunch” kid for much of my early school years – I was fortunate to grow up in a stable family who valued education and understood the importance of public schools in shaping and upholding community values. I worked (and borrowed) my way through college at WPI in Worcester and eventually obtained a BS in Civil Engineering. Since then I’ve had numerous jobs: working for “heavy-civil” construction contractors, as a land development consultant and most recently working for nearly 10 years as a track designer and consultant in the freight railroad industry.

I am not a Somerville native, and I am acutely aware of that during campaigns. As I knock on doors in the neighborhood, I am very pleased to find myself continuously learning new personal histories and perspectives on our neighborhood from the many good people of Ward 1, and many who’ve been around much longer than me. Native or not, my family and I are deeply invested in our community and I believe that I am the right person at the right time to continue to represent Ward 1 on the School Committee. www.steveroix.com

 

Kenneth Salvato – Ward 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #1: What do you see as the role of the School Committee Member in representing their ward?

As the role of the School Committee Member in representing our ward I feel that maintaining contact with the teachers and parents as well as the students would help with the education of our children.

 

Question #2: What is your opinion on the importance of MCAS?

I feel as if the MCAS is of extreme importance.  Not only is it used as a measuring tool, it will help influence our education program.  It is helpful for us to know what level our students are at with their academic studies.

 

Question #3: What is the most pressing school related issue now facing your ward?

Absentee, tardiness and the dropout rate is very pressing in our school system.  Introducing our children to the alternative schools that are available can help guide them and assure graduation.

 

Question#4: With the high rate of substance abuse in the city, at what grade level do you feel drug education should start?

Substance abuse is a topic that needs much attention.  I believe that 6th grade is a starting point that can help give our children the guidance and knowledge that they may need if a situation develops.

 

Question #5: Do you think the city budget allows for the programs needed in the school system or is too much money going to administration?

I strongly feel that too much money is going to administration.  I would be very interested in analyzing the city budget and making adjustments where needed to further fund out school programs.

 

Question#6: What do you see as the most important role of the new superintendent in relationship to the school committee?

As the new superintendent there are many important roles.  In relationship to the school committee, I would encourage leadership, continuous contact with the students and parents and develop meetings to exchange ideas and discuss any concerns.

 

Bio:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

My name is Kenneth Salvato, and as you know, I am running for School Committee, Ward 1 in the upcoming fall election. My family and I have been Somerville residents  for over 40 years.  Both my parents were long time employees for the City Of Somerville.  I have spoken with many of our neighbors throughout the community and I will fight for our children and their education.  I am passionate to ensure the  needs of Ward 1 School Committee are met and satisfied.  We need consistency and a full time member for Ward 1.  I am that person.

I ask for a chance. A CHANCE EQUALS CHANGE. We will meet again.

I look forward to earning your vote.

God Bless America and God Bless Somerville!!