The  School Committee should be proactive rather than reactive. I will use my experience managing budgets and projects to move forward a number of strategic plans, including:

• A long term plan for the high school

• A short term plan to address capacity at the elementary school level

• A long term plan to address a new Fox Hill and overall elementary school capacity and planning including BECC future needs

• A short and long term plan addressing the transportation needs of Burlington’s students. A renewed focus on the bus contract and increased engagement with the Safe Routes to School program to look at the future of transportation in Burlington.

• A plan to address pandemic learning loss. I support the continued use of federal funds and innovative solutions to ensure that our children are able to make up for lost time and meet grade-level standards. We must also plan for future wide-scale interruptions to ensure that our students can continue to thrive throughout these challenges. 

• I plan to advocate for improved transparency and communication between the school administration and families.

We should be supporting the teachers and their needs. The burden on today’s teachers is severe and if they need to change the school day paradigm then I am wide open to exploring options. I fully support innovation and would be more than proud to say Burlington has the highest paid teachers in the state! I want us to continue to attract the best and the brightest for our students.

The DESE mask mandate is in place until February 28. Should that expire as currently written, a decision regarding mask policy will need to be made by the current school committee prior to the April 9 election.

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I would support the following policy recommendations:

• BPS should continue the Covid vaccination clinics and I encourage all parents to discuss vaccinating their eligible children with their providers.

• The high school is approaching 80% vaccinated. We should be working on an application to remove the current mask mandate.

• The district should be preparing for a future without a mask mandate and be ready to make masks optional when it is safe to do so. The School Committee in coordination with the Board of Health should target specific, realistic health metrics (i.e. hospitalization rates) for masks optional and masks required.

• The district should provide KN95 masks to all students and staff upon request and anyone who chooses to wear one should be free to do so.

• We should continue to invest in improved ventilation to reduce circulation of all respiratory diseases now and in the future.

• Event and gathering restrictions should be moved to be in line with the relative risks of the attendees as well as in line with non-school regulations.