School Committee Candidate Joe Curro

In preparation for the upcoming town elections, Arlington Patch sat down to talk with all of the candidates running for major office. We've been bringing our readers profiles on all of the different candidates, giving you an inside look at their backgrounds, experiences and their views on the issues. 

Current Chairman Joe Curro is one of four candidates running for a three-year term on the School Committee. Curro faces current School Committee member Leba Heigham, former Town Republican Committee Chairman Jim Dolan and Town Meeting Member and retired teacher William Hayner. Voters will choose three candidates to each serve a three-year term. 

A 21-year Arlington resident, Joe Curro is a Web integration architect at the New England Journal of Medicine and the current chairmen of the Arlington School Committee. Curro has served on the School Committee for three years and as a Town Meeting member for 10 years, in addition to chairing the Arlington Human Rights Commission. 

Patch: The most hotly contested issue the School Committee faced this past year was the budget deficit. How do you think the committee should handle the district’s budget deficit?

Joe Curro:  After this year, we’ve realized that we have to be more diligent and require monthly tracking reports. We can see the areas that raised red flags and we have reorganized our accounting significantly, especially working to track our revenues and expenditures. I am meeting with the Town Manager and executives on other other committees to build a better picture of our finances. I’m open to looking  at other alternatives. In the wake of the deficit, I also called for a process audit (of the School Committee’s budgetary process) and urged cooperation between the School Committee and the town. We will be sure to implement their recommendations moving forward. We still have a lot of work to do, but the silver lining in last year’s deficit is that it shed light on the areas where we are weakest and given us momentum to move forward.”

Patch: Residents and town officials also expressed concern with the committee’s communication methods about the budget deficit. If elected to the committee, what specifically will you do to improve communication and the relationship between the committee and the town?

Joe Curro: “As chairman, I have been proactive in working with our counterparts on the municipal level and will continue to do so if I am re-elected. I am currently sitting with my colleagues at the municipal level to look the school’s five-year plan; they are part of the discussions regularly so we can come to an understanding about how to move forward together. In presenting the FY11 budget, we held three major forums for the public and we will continue to hold public forums to give people ample opportunity to give their input. I want to take elements of what we’ve already done to lead an open and inclusive budgetary process.”

Patch: After the sports fees debate this past year, the committee voted to form an athletics subcommittee. If elected to the committee, what specifically will you do to maintain and fortify the relationship between the school committee and the athletic community?

Joe Curro: “Working with the advisory committee was an important first step. As Chairman, I instituted the “Reflection, Remembrance and Recognition,” portion of the agenda to highlight student work.  It’s important that we do more to highlight athletic achievement and to bring students into the meetings more often.”

Patch: The Arlington School District faces cuts to staff and enrichment programs this year. If these cuts are made, what should the committee do to support the affected schools?

Joe Curro: “We have to rely on our principals and our curriculum leaders — they’re on the front lines and we’re not. I am in a uniquely beneficial position to help with communications around next year's proposed school dislocations, because I am so close to the Stratton and Thompson School communities. I have also served as a liaison to the Hardy School. It is our job as School Committee members to gather parental concerns; multiple inputs will be key to solving the problems that we face. In terms of restoring cuts, politically, we can provide support by going to the voters with an override request and providing all necessary information and analysis to help make the case. We promised the voters we would wait five years before coming to them with another override. It’s been six years, and we’re feeling the pain. They (the voters) deserve to get a voice in this, so an override has to be a choice.”

Patch: What about your experience and background makes you the best person for this job?

Joe Curro: “As an Arlington parent, I have a longtime commitment to our schools and I am deeply invested in making our schools better. As chairman, I’ve worked as chairman to reset the tone of a committee that was tearing itself to pieces in years past. I feel that it would be a sin to take all that I’ve learned in the past three years and to walk away. When I came on to the committee, them members had an average length of service of two years; I want to break out of that and I want to build on that experience pool. I am level-headed, I have a firm grasp on the issues and I am committed to making the schools the best they can be.”  

Check back with Arlington Patch for more candidate profiles before you head to the polls on April 2.