QUERIES FOR HOPEFULS: What basic challenges does Arlington face? How would you address each? Potential candidates for majors offices in the April Town Election answer.
Morgan: ‘Numbers should support a plan.’
Targets funding, AHS project, vision
UPDATED, Feb. 18: Seeking a School Committee seat, Jane P. Morgan is busy enough.
The former classroom teacher (six through 12) and administrator is a current statistics professor, as well as a mother of four. That said, she adds: “… so I approach things from many different directions. I am analytical and data-driven. I believe that we need data and numbers to make an argument and support a plan.”
As to the three most basic challenges facing the Arlington Public Schools, she would:
1. Preserve the educational experience of our students given increased enrollment;
2. Prepare for the renovation/rebuild of Arlington High School; and
3. Present a cogent, comprehensive vision of what we want for our schools, as well as what that will cost, in advance of the next operating override.
As a School Committee member, here is how she says she would address each in her own words:
Appropriate levels of funding
1. To preserve our students’ educational experience, the School Committee needs to continue to advocate for appropriate levels of funding from the Town of Arlington as well as work with other stakeholders statewide to increase funding from the state level. As we finish building out our school infrastructure to support our enrollment, we also need to make sure that we are deploying our staff and faculty appropriately and using resources wisely.
2. In preparing for the renovation/rebuild of Arlington High School, we need to continue to seek input from the community while moving aggressively toward meeting the deadlines and milestones set by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. We need to make sure that our new high school is accessible and available for community use during off-school hours and that we advocate bravely for what our students and faculty need. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity — let’s move forward diligently, urgently and confidently.
3. The Arlington Public Schools need to present a clear vision for what we want education to look like in Arlington. Eventually, we must attach dollar amounts to obtain our objectives. So much of what we want for our students — innovative special education, increased diversity in both hiring and materials, more STEM and arts programming, opportunities for nontraditional learners, more individualized project-based opportunities, support for ELL, and on and on — can be delivered only through changing our school-funding model.
However, in order to make that ask compelling, we need to be able to present a plan for what we want our schools to look like.
And your expertise?
All potential candidates have been asked what expertise they have that reflects their ability to carry through on each of these three. Morgan answered:
As a former teacher and administrator who is an adjunct at Southern New Hampshire University, “I know that schools are unique places, and operate very unlike corporations.
“As a mother of four children (10, 9, 9 and 4), I am invested in our schools in a very fundamental way. I am a former PTO president, so I understand firsthand what kinds of things we aren’t funding in our schools.”
As a part of the leadership team for the last debt-exclusion campaign for Gibbs, Thompson, AHS and Minuteman, “I understand what it means to make an ask of voters. I also recognize that I have a lot to learn and I am ready and willing to do so as a member of the Arlington School Committee.”
To date, two people have taken out papers for two School Committee seats — Morgan and Jeff Thielman, who is seeking reelection. Incumbent Cindy Starks has chosen not to run.
Campaign websites: Jane Morgan for School Committee and Facebook
Campaign kickoff coffee: Saturday, March 10, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., home of Molly and Ken Lyons, 27 Cherokee Road
Jan. 3, 2018: Newcomer takes out papers for School Committee, as Starks declines to run
2018 Annual Town Election link
This news summary was published Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, and updated Feb. 18, to add kickoff.
