Marlborough Candidate Profile: Mark Dexter For School Committee

MARLBOROUGH, MA — Marlborough's election is just a few months away and a contested race for School Committee, with a four-way race in the works. Marlborough's mayoral race is another contested race and split into three ways — the field of mayoral candidates will be narrowed after the Oct. 8 preliminary election — the mayoral race is the only one in the preliminary election.

Marlborough's general election will be held on Nov. 5.

Marlborough Patch asked candidates in the contested races to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Mark Dexter, 37, is running for School Committee in Marlborough. His opponents are Heidi Adler Matthews, Katherine H. Hennessey and Daniel J. Caruso. Dexter works as the Freight Payment Coordinator at TJX Companies in the city and recieved his Bachelor's degree from Framingham State University in 2018. Dexter and his wife have two children.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Communication. I, and other parents have experienced a disconnection between the school committee and MPS as a whole.
I intend to utilize social media outlets and try to maximize information distributed to the City of Marlborough, in an orderly manner so that the 'press releases' are clear and not an overwhelming dump of information.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My inexperience with the MPS system. I view this as a positive. My children are younger, I’ve been in the MPS system for less than 4 years now. New parents to MPS system are being overlooked. From my experience, problems like this are best to be fixed top down. Once leadership acknowledges a problem and change their behavior, subordinates follow suit and the issue is resolved.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

Communication and Transparency, the number one consumer of the services provided by MPS School Committee are parents.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I sat on the Board of Directors for The Cottage Children's Center here in Marlborough. I held the distinction as Co- Treasure during my tenure. I also would like to note that Mr. Bergeron, MPS Superintendent, mentioned he is working with local authorities to increase the presences of first responders in schools as a means to increase familiarity between students and those in uniform. This was a concept introduced I'm my last campaign 2 years ago, at the time the program was "High Five Fridays."

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

"D-rock it, Dexter" was the exact quote. Meaning: fix the initial problem first. Then find the root of the problem, not just the symptoms and fix that too.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I don't know everything, I'm not going to pretend to either. If you have a concern, or a question, reach out, maybe I have an answer, but more likely I need to have a conversation so we can find the best long-term solution for all.