Mashburn Lays Out Priorities For School Committee Run

The Stoneham School Committee has made many positive changes in the past years and decades and I'm running to add expertise in health and wellness, and community building. My professional experience over the last 20 years has exposed me to many different kinds of education systems and innovative ways of handling budget issues, curriculum enhancement, and methods of enriching social and emotional wellness in youth and adults. With this perspective, my goal is to continue the current achievements within the schools, and to promote growth using policies and curricula rooted in research and evidence, in order to ensure that all students in Stoneham receive access to a healthy and high quality public education.

After talking with parents and community members my top four priorities are:

1. Enhancing resources and educational needs to address social-emotional needs

Social-emotional health refers to the ability of children to respond to and manage emotions, and the ability to establish positive relationships with others. This leads to positive decision-making, increased self-esteem and decreases conduct and risk-taking behaviors. Providing Stoneham youth with the tools and resources to achieve this is the most important goal we as a community should strive to achieve. Some ideas that I draw from my experience include:

• Introduce an evidence-based health curriculum in grades K-12. This selection should involve input from the teachers, parents and students.

• Equip teachers with tools to enhance the classroom environment, improve academic achievement and school climate.

• Propose development of and assist the Superintendents office in the design of a bullying coordinator position for the district whose role is to standardize bullying prevention across the school system.

• Provide youth and their families access to resources for social-emotional wellness.

• Improve communication of the results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey year to year.

2. Institutional education needs such as universal Pre-K, a new high school, addressing class size concerns and development of more inclusive special education
 • As a community we need to encourage more open communication between the schools, the school committee and the families they both serve. As the primary expert on their child, every parent should feel knowledgeable and informed about their child’s education program. This is particularly important for families of students with disabilities. I have extensive experience working with people with disabilities of all ages and their families. This experience has taught me the importance of family and community buy-in when
designing and implementing programming to support the growth of individuals of all abilities.

 • The School committee should work with the Superintendent’s office on the post-application phase of the high school proposal to the state, to ensure community involvement. My professional experience includes direct involvement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the state office who approves funding for cost-effective public school facilities.

• The feasibility of Universal Pre-K or pre-K that better accommodates working families in Stoneham should be explored. I believe all families should be able to afford access to high-quality early education that meet their needs.

 • Parents and community members, including myself, are concerned about recent increases in class size and student-teacher ratios. This is particularly detrimental to academic achievement and engagement in the elementary school years. I believe the community should continue to explore existing infrastructure capabilities, and short- and long-term solutions to address this concern.

3. Increasing communication between the community and the School Committee

As a parent who attends school and community meetings I consider myself well-informed on the happenings within the town and our schools. Parents and community members who are not able to dedicate this time should feel just as informed. Simple improvements can enhance communication between the school committee and families within the community of Stoneham. This might include open-discussion time with individual committee members, use of social media or even a newsletter, to name a few.

In addition, I believe that there should be more collaboration between the school committee and groups who also work to enrich education, such as the Parent Teacher Organizations, Boys and Girls Club, and the YMCA.

4. Availability and access to 21st Century Skills education

Our school system should provide more opportunities to prepare our children to thrive in today’s technological environment and meet employment requisites for technical trades. Such areas might include computer coding, financial literacy (starting in elementary school), internet and technology safety, as well as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). In order to achieve this, all education facilities must ensure access to secure, high-speed internet access.

These four areas are where I see the Stoneham schools enriching the education of its students and the overall health of the community. I am asking for your vote on Tuesday, April 3 so that I may dedicate my expertise to the Stoneham Schools.