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.
Focuses on AHS project, school aid, curriculum update
Thielman
‘committed to inclusive process.’
First elected to the School Committee 15 years ago, Jeffrey D. Thielman has managed meetings with efficiency and yet awareness of the implications about broader issues. His comments cut to the core of a discussion.
As he eyes reelection, the current committee chairman responds with dispatch to the question about the three most basic challenges facing our schools: They are, he says, rebuilding our high school, supporting school funding and continuing to adapt our curriculum and school culture to prepare young people to succeed in the 21st century.
As the chair of the Arlington High School Building Committee, which is overseeing the rebuild or renovation of the high school in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), he serves as the committee’s liaison to the state agency and represented the town in MSBA decisions regarding the selection of our design firm.
His role as chair is to ensure that there is broad community participation in the planning of the new school, which will be the largest capital project in town history.
The schools have launched a series of community forums to get public input and will continue these dialogues throughout the project.
“It is an honor to be participating in the high school rebuild,” he wrote, and I am committed to an inclusive process, which is critical to building a new facility that is worthy of the great students and staff we have at AHS.”
‘We run a very lean district’
“He adds: “Arlington spends less per pupil than the statewide average, and we deliver results that are in the top tier of all districts in the state.
“We run a very lean school district. As a member of the School Committee, I will continue to lobby the state to implement the recommendations of the 2015 Foundation Budget Review Commission, which concluded that the commonwealth is underfunding public school districts by $1 billion.
“We must, however, take steps locally to provide additional funding for both our public schools and for town services.”
Thielman has served on Town Meeting since 2001 and has worked on town finance issues with people of various perspectives for many years.
“Because our town’s disciplined approach to municipal finance,” he wrote, “we have not had an operating override since 2011. If I am reelected, I would like to be part of the conversation with town leaders and the residents of the town about ways to increase revenue locally to fund good schools and quality town services.”
Educators need resources
Finally, he wrote, it is the School Committee’s job to make sure our educators have the support, resources and encouragement they need to strengthen our K-12 curriculum so that every one of our students graduates ready to succeed in the 21st century.
Part of the high school rebuild/renovation process requires those involved to develop an academic vision for the high school, and faculty and staff are working on a plan for a strong academic program coupled with additional social-emotional support for students at the sixth-grade school at a renovated Gibbs.
As a member of the School Committee, he wrote that he wants to make sure we create a K-12 academic vision and plan that prepares every child for postsecondary success.
Background
His experience consists of 15 years of service on the Arlington School Committee and more than two decades of in education management.
He was a teacher early in his career, oversaw the replication of a model of private education that now includes 32 schools in 22 states serving 12,000 urban youth and served as the head of a high school for low-income students.
In short, he has managed school-building projects, hired staff and school leaders and managed school budgets.
In his current day job, he is the chief executive officer of a multistate human-services and adult-education program that serves immigrants and refugees — theInternational Institute of New England.
“The combination of my experience in Arlington and professionally makes me uniquely qualified to work with my colleagues on the School Committee to address the challenges we face and to ensure that the board appropriately oversees our town’s high-performing public schools,” he wrote.
Two seats for School Committee are open on the ballot for the April election. Current member Cindy Starks has decided not to run. To date, Jane P. Morgan is the other potential candidate apart from Thielman.
Campaign websites:Jeff Thielman for School Committee|Facebook
2018 Annual Town Election link
This news summary was published Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.
