Correction: "Letter to Editor" from Tim Bonfatti

The following is a correction to a "Letter to the Editor" written and submitted by Tim Bonfatti. The Letter to the Editor was posted on the Medfield Patch on 3/18/18 and is shown below the correction.

Recently I submitted a Letter to the Editor to the Medfield Patch endorsing the re-election of Maryanne Sullivan to School Committee. It has been brought to my attention that I misstated Maryanne’s involvement with Medfield Music Association. While Maryanne has been an active donor to Medfield Music Association for many years, she has not volunteered actively as I indicated. Of course, that unintentional mistake does not change the fundamental narrative of my endorsement. Maryanne has contributed countless hours of time to the school system both in her official capacity as a school committee member but also as a frequent volunteer at our schools. Additionally, Maryanne has been a key force in keeping the Medfield school system at the top of the state while balancing the financial concerns of all of our taxpayers. I hope you will join me in voting for Maryanne Sullivan for School Committee on Monday March 26th.

"Dear Editor,

On Monday, March 26th, I will be enthusiastically casting my vote for School Committee for Maryanne Sullivan. I have had the pleasure of working with Maryanne the past 6 years on school committee, including the last 2 in which she has served as chairperson.

Over the past twenty years I have been involved in town government as a member of the Building Committee and School Committee, I have found that we achieve the best results for the Town, and its schools, when we work collaboratively. In Maryanne, we are fortunate to have a person who is both passionately dedicated to the schools while recognizing that we are part of a whole town and need all of its residents to feel a part of the town's success.

Those of us who know Maryanne, know she can fight for our schools. Before she was on school committee, she led the fight for the last override we needed to properly fund our schools. She has been an active volunteer for both Medfield Music and the CSA for the past ten years. There have been very few people who have spent as much time and effort in supporting the Medfield school system than Maryanne. Her efforts have had a direct effect on the success the school system has achieved in the past decade.While that success can be measured in statistics, which consistently place the Medfield school system in the top 5% of the state (a state
which, by the way, is the top ranked in the country for education), it is more obviously evident in the voices of its parents and students. Parents who speak with pride at how their children have achieved so much more in school, both academically and emotionally, than they achieved. And students, who routinely come home from college appreciative of the preparation they received here to make their transition to adulthood easier.

The Medfield School Committee, under Maryanne's leadership, has recently completed a strategic plan which recognizes that a successful school system balances all the needs of its student population, not just their academic needs. It is why we have placed social and emotional learning and special needs at the top of our priority list. In addition to recently hiring a coveted Director of Pupil Services for our population requiring those services, we have significantly increased spending on programs and administrators to
address the increasingly complex challenges our children experience in these stressful times.

Maryanne understands, however, that the school system doesn't sit on an island of its own. We are part of a much larger municipal fabric that includes all of Medfield's residents. In a town which has no significant
commercial tax basis, all of its departments, including its schools, must spend the town's tax receipts efficiently. It never ceases to amaze me that are able to achieve the extraordinary results we achieve on a
per pupil expenditure which ranks in the bottom 10% of the state. In doing so, we are able to preserve funding for other town priorities like public safety and senior citizen enrichment. While this balance cannot
be sustained for the long term without occasional tax overrides, Maryanne has been at the forefront of developing a strategic approach to those occasions and not participating in the zero sum game where the
school system wins while those residents on a fixed income lose.

I hope you will join me in voting to keep Maryanne Sullivan on the school committee."
Tim Bonfatti
11 Copperwood Rd.