My Priorities

Strong science education for every child, starting in the earliest grades.

Too often we focus on science for high schoolers to the exclusion of science in middle, elementary and early grades. When high quality, experiential science is absent from the early grades, many students find themselves excluded from opportunities for advanced science classes in high school as well as the growing array of science & technology jobs post-graduation. Equally important, they lose opportunities for the rich, engaging learning that comes from wondering about and exploring the world around them. Science fosters a child’s natural curiosity and leads to engaged learning across core subject areas. Science develops critical thinking and problem solving skills. It provides an opportunity to practice math, writing and speaking skills. As a school committee member, I will work to raise up science equity for all of our young people.

Support for our new superintendent of schools and keeping them accountable to the task.

The School Committee is charged with oversight of the superintendent, and good management means both support and accountability. This is one of the clearest responsibilities assigned to the School Committee: to ensure that the role is filled expeditiously and following a thorough search for the best candidate; to help the superintendent be the strong leader our schools need; and to hold the superintendent to a high standard with clear directives and transparent communication.

Communication with families.

A school district’s relationship to its students’ families is fundamental to a young person’s success in school. Families should be able to rely on the school committee to foster a good relationship between them and the district. As a school committee member, I commit to building a better partnership between the district and the school councils; to doing the work of understanding the barriers to our students’ achievement across all cultural and economic groups; to asking hard and fair questions of our district when necessary; and to making myself known to our many individual school communities in Cambridge Public Schools.

High expectations for every student, and ensuring all are given the support and opportunities to achieve those expectations.

All of our students deserve a school environment with skilled teaching, high quality curricula and reliable communication with families. To reach their full academic potential, students also need access to a wide array of learning outside of school–  STEM programming, art, robotics, music, environmental programs– that give them opportunities to apply their classroom knowledge and skills. Cambridge Public Schools has struggled to bridge the resource gap within our diverse student body. Some kids have a lot of out-of-school opportunities; others have very few. The School committee has a critical role in addressing this challenge through policies that promote a robust, accessible out-of-school time network; policies that protect students from harmful distractions in-school time; and policies that ensure a strong mental health safety net, especially for our middle school and high school students.