Our schools are made up of students from all sorts of backgrounds and individualized needs. We need to create an optimal learning environment where each and every kid has the best shot at achieving their full potential, and where every kid feels safe and welcome when they walk through their school doors. According to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior survey, 82.6% of AHS students report feeling "an overwhelming amount of stress." Arlington scored worst in this category among all the towns surveyed. At the elementary and junior high levels, we have kids refusing to go to school or transferring out of APS. Whether it's making sure our low income kids feel fully integrated into our school activities or our gender queer kids are addressed with the correct pronouns, we need to make sure every kid feels like they belong. 

 

This goes for their parents and caregivers too. We need to make sure our systems and committees are set up so they work for all families -- working families and immigrant families, LGTBQ+ families and Jewish families. Small changes, like making sure the art project in December offers blue and white paper instead of just red and green, can make a big difference in one kid’s experience. Let’s continue to build on these changes together.

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As your school committee member, I will work advocate for:

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• Curriculum for caregivers, teachers, and students introducing and providing gender neutral bathrooms at all of our schools

• Expanded, effective programming, such as active bystander training, to address bullying, especially at the middle school level

• A system allowing for parents to anonymously report and document concerns & micro-aggressions 

• Multi-flesh toned craft supplies and band-aids at all of our schools

• Expanded late bus transportation for our METCO students

• Increased support and funding for student led affinity programs such as the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA)

• Broadened after-school offerings

• Robust welcome programs for new families at all of our schools

• Strengthened school councils, offering meetings at convenient times for working families, with notes that are communicated out consistently to the school communities

• Yearly dedicated listening session for parents of kids of color as well as for students