POLICIES

One common underlying thread to any policy I would vote to approve, is that it must be formulated by all stakeholders, to include students, parents, teachers, and administrators. It also must be the result of constructive dialogue between each of these stakeholders in order to develop a well thought out policy.

Every policy should by default include the involvement of the family and the parents, in whatever form the family and the parental figures take.

There is no question that anytime a student is going through a challenging time in their lives, including the family and parents when overcoming that challenge, undoubtedly leads to a more successful outcome then if they are not included. Admittedly there will be times when it is difficult to bridge the gap between student and family and we need to have well thought out policies in place to manage that. And there may be occasions when a students safety could come into question. In any of these situations, the challenges faced by the students must be dealt with head on. It is unfair to ask our teachers to treat a student one way at school, but then refer to them differently when speaking to their parents, this puts our students and our teachers in a very dangerous position. We must do the hard work to develop policies and plans that teach our students to face challenges and to help them find solutions.

Another topic discussed quite frequently is books in school libraries. While I do not have any specific opinions on any particular books, I would become familiar on how books are selected for our libraries. I believe whatever selection process is in place, it should include people with different opinions and ideological views. If books are selected by people from diverse viewpoints this would give concerned parents a place to ask questions about how a particular book was approved or disapproved. If we can ensure that the selection process is representative of the entire spectrum of a parental viewpoints, I think we can eliminate many of the concerns. And there absolutely should be some type of process parents can go through if they are concerned about a book. They should not have as their only resort, speaking publicly at a school committee meeting. We must understand that some parents may have issues with certain books based on their beliefs. However, I’m confident we can come up with a system that will address those issues in a constructive manner and not put a label on every parent with a concern.