Shrewsbury 2022 Candidate Profile: Lynsey Heffernan, School Committee

SHREWSBURY, MA — Shrewsbury's 2022 school committee race features one incumbent and three challengers looking to pick up a vacancy that opened with the retirement of member B. Dale Magee.

Lynsey Heffernan is seeking her second term on the committee, and will be running along with newcomers Erin Boucher, Jennifer Luke and Sanam Zaer.

In advance of the election, Shrewsbury Patch asked each candidate to answer our questionnaire to help voters get to know them better. Here's how incumbent Heffernan responded:

Name: Lynsey Heffernan
Age: 43
Occupation: Lawyer, MBTA
Experience as an elected official: Current member of the Shrewsbury School Committee 2019-present; Town Meeting member 2019-present; appointed representative for the Shrewsbury Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Taskforce, 2019-2020; Paton School Council member, 2014-2019.

Why are you running for a seat on the Shrewsbury School Committee?

I’m running for re-election to the School Committee to help deliver the strong school system we expect in Shrewsbury. I want to ensure that all children benefit from the same high-quality public education that has allowed me to succeed both educationally and in my career. The past few years have been difficult for schools, between the total shutdown in 2020, the hybrid and remote schooling of 2021, and the lingering impacts of the pandemic as we begin 2022. From teachers, to parents, to children, to employers, we have all become more aware of the critical importance of schools in our local ecosystem. I want to ensure that our schools continue to lead the state in developing responsible and inclusive citizens who embrace new ideas and value diverse opinions. I’m proud of my work on the School Committee and I’m proud of our residents who voted to invest in all our municipal services.

What's the biggest issue facing Shrewsbury Public Schools and what would you do about it?

From my perspective, addressing the ongoing impacts of the pandemic presents the greatest current challenges to our school system. We must maintain a focus on assisting our students, through our valued staff, to make up for the educational losses suffered through disruptions in learning over the past years due to the pandemic. In addition, we should continue to reassess to ensure that we are adequately responding to the growing mental health needs of young people in our community. Not all students and families were impacted equally, potentially worsening both educational gaps and limiting connections to positive prosocial adults in the lives of some of our youth. Learning the impact of these losses will take time for our staff to determine, and we must ensure that we have the proper resources to provide meaningful interventions.

DESE lifted its mask requirement earlier this year, but coronavirus continues to circulate widely in Shrewsbury and Massachusetts, and there will likely be surges next winter. Would you support bringing back a mask mandate? Why or why not?

Like all parents and community members I wish COVID was behind us. However, the virus has proven to be unpredictable. As a School Committee member I have consistently tried to follow the science as best as I can, to keep our children and our staff safe. The mask requirement was put in place for this purpose and was rescinded when it was determined that our rates of

community spread were low and the variant was causing mild symptoms for most people. If these factors were to change dramatically, I would certainly support bringing back the masking mandate to ensure the fundamental goal: to educate our children safely in person. While no one enjoys the masks, and I personally look forward to a world without them, we do know that, worn properly, masks can dramatically reduce the spread of the virus. Given that students, even medically vulnerable students, are required by law to be in school, I would support efforts to protect the educational setting for all kids. If medical and public health experts continue to tell us that masks can and should be part of that equation, of course, the School Committee should consider them.

If you could snap your fingers and fix or change one thing in the school system, what would it be?

Given my prior experience working in the juvenile justice system, and my understanding of adolescent brain development through the teenage years, I have long sought to see a change in our school start times, particularly at the high school level. I served on a committee as a Parent Representative on this issue in 2015, and I learned just how complicated, and frankly expensive, this change would be. Transportation costs are a significant part of our budget, and changing start times likely impacts our staff who live in different districts, our arrangements for after school activities and athletics, especially with other towns, and child care arrangements for young children. That said, the science is clear that adolescents need more sleep for healthy brain development and functioning, including positive mental health. If I had the power to snap my fingers and make this change, I would do it in a minute!