School Committee Candidates On Start Times, Mental Health, More

ANDOVER, MA — Andover's three School Committee candidates faced of Thursday night in a forum at Andover High School. Amy Hafensteiner, Shishan Wang and Lauren Conoscenti shared their views on start times, student mental health, shooting drills and more as they made their cases for the one open seat on the Committee. The three were joined by Town Moderator Sheila Doherty, who is running unopposed for re-election, and Select Board Chair Laura Gregory, who faces a challenge from Stephen Prochniak.

The forum was hosted by Greater Andover Indivisible and Freedom From Fear, the Andover High School chapter of March For Our Lives. Candidates made opening statements, and took questions from the audience and from Leah Parrot of Freedom From Fear.

The annual town election is March 24.

The full forum is available here from Andover TV.

Previously on Patch:

Nine Candidates In 2020 Andover Town Election

Andover Candidate Profile: Shishan Wang For School Committee

Andover Candidate Profile: Lauren Conoscenti For School Committee

Andover Candidate Profile: Amy Hafensteiner For School Committee

The three candidates contrasted their backgrounds and perspectives. Hafensteiner, a biotech recruiter, portrayed herself as an fresh perspective who would be particularly useful for superintendent hiring. Wang, a research scientist, argued his scientific background prepared him to study deeply issues before the Committee. Conoscenti, a data scientist at Tufts University, said her work in higher education gave her a unique understanding of what students would need to succeed in high school.

Parrot asked the three about two topics: student mental health and the ongoing school start times debate.

Mental Health

"I want to make sure everyone has a voice and a way to communicate what's going on," Hafensteiner said. "We as a school committee need to come together to support all of our students."

"There are many solutions to this," Wang said. He called for increasing the number of counselors and noted that with better sleep — potentially due to a change to secondary school start times — would also improve mental health.

Conoscenti agreed with the need for more counselors and called for programming to improve "school connectedness": "Having strong relationships between educators and students have been shown to have an incredible benefit for academic outcomes, mental health outcomes and social-emotional outcomes."

School start times

Conoscenti, who prepared an analysis of the school start times survey for the School Committee last year, argued the School Committee needed to "research this issue thoroughly, flexibly, with an open mind."

"As an elementary school mom, I completely understand the concerns of our elementary parents, but I also vividly remember being a high school student, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, not able to sleep," Conoscenti said. "I understand that what we're asking them to do is not compatible with their biology.

Wang said everyone in the district agrees that sleep deprivation is an issue, and what the district needed to agree on is what schedule is best. He favored the Lexington school schedule: middle school starts at 8 a.m., high school at 8:30, and elementary schools at 9 a.m.

Hafensteiner, who repeatedly referenced her involvement with Andover: Protect All Children, an advocacy group formed in part in opposition to extreme shifts to elementary school start times, said, "We need to backpedal, think of how we got that topic."

"This is not the top priority," Hafensteiner said. "It's not that it's not important, but you have to prioritize."

Audience questions

Audience members asked questions on a wide range of issues. High school student Ethan Gasse said there is not enough education in the Andover curriculum on the subject of the U.S. history of slavery and racism, and asked the candidates if they would advocate a change to include more on the subject. All three agreed that the district should have a full education on U.S. history.

"If you feel there isn't enough and you have data, you should really bring them up," Hafensteiner said. "You shouldn't miss a big chunk of history."

"I agree history is very important," Wang said. "If you want to improve the curriculum, you could study it, do a very comprehensive review of the textbooks, and support the teachers."

"It's first important to acknowledge the School Committee doesn't control curriculum specifically," Conoscenti said. "Individually, this is a topic that absolutely should be studied fully, the topics of slavery, past racism, current racism... Funds for the curriculum, I would support that if it was presented to us."

Another questioner asked about recent HR controversies the district has faced and asked whether they would support creating an additional human resources position. Wang and Conoscenti do not, while Hafensteiner agreed their was a human resources "situation" but did not clearly call for another employee.

All three said they support "STEAM" programming, where arts is included in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM quartet. They all were open to looking into alternatives to standardized testing and said they would work hard to keep communication channels open between the School Committee and teachers.

Another student asked the candidates their views on shooting drills, which he said have no evidence basis. Hafensteiner and Conoscenti both called for conversations with experts on how to protect students without harming their mental health, while Wang said, "We have to do the drills, in case anything happens."

One community member asked if the candidates would be "willing to break rank" with their colleagues on School Committee. All three said yes, although Conoscenti and Wang also emphasized the importance of teamwork and positive working relationships on the Committee.

None came out clearly in favor of increasing per-pupil spending, with Conoscenti noting that it's up to town meeting and Wang saying per-pupil spending does not directly predict outcomes. Hafensteiner said priorities have to be defined first.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.