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Date: 5/2/2023
BELCHERTOWN — This year’s town election takes place on May 15 and features only one contested race.
Heidi Gutekenst, Lamikco Magee and Matthew Jackson are the three candidates running for the two School Committee seats.
Gutekenst is running for reelection while Jackson and Magee are looking to bring fresh faces to the committee.
Gutekenst has served on the School Committee for two terms and said she would like to continue putting in the hard work. She is thankful for the voters for the opportunity to serve the past two terms but wants to serve again.
Gutekenst said, “I can’t say that every moment on the committee has been easy, but I can say that at the end of every day, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I was a member when we hired the new superintendent and I have helped navigate the committee though our reopening plans from COVID, starting our diversity and inclusion projects and have started the process of renovating or replacing Jabish Brook Middle School.
Gutekenst currently works in the field of recreation for children from preschool to high school and believes it helps her understand the unique needs of kids from each grade level.
Gutekenst would also like to be reelected to see the Jabish Brook Middle School project be completed.
She said, “We are currently in the feasibility study of the project, and I am eager to find out the results. I want to our district to maximize the potential and whether that be a renovation of the building or a new building all together, we know the old building is not cost effective or sufficient to meet the needs of a modern day middle school.”
She added that two of her priorities will be helping with the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion project along with the future budget.
“It is so important for all our students, and I want every student to feel valued and safe. We have been able to create and utilize input from students, staff, families and community members to recognize and address inequities, bias and prejudice in our district. Building on our curriculum, teaching students to recognize and address discrimination, bias and racism and ensuring that students have a voice to air concerns are imperative to moving our district forward,” Gutekenst said.
She added, “We are also facing serious budget shortfalls in the immediate future. We know that, even before addressing the deficient in town funding, that the school has positions funded with grants that will end after the next fiscal year. I believe the school will need to be proactive, flexible and transparent in working with the town to adequately fund the school department in future years.”
Magee has been an educator for over 20 years and added that she has been an advocate of children for even longer than that.
“I would appreciate the opportunity to serve Belchertown. I serve Amherst as educator, and this is a chance to serve my community.”
Magee said she has been an educator in Amherst for six years and currently works as a teacher leader and a special education department leader in its middle school.
Magee said, “I am focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. Not only do I think that in my work, but I take it into my volunteer work, I teach workshops on it. I am very much focused on an equitable environment for students regardless of their race, religion or how they identify.”
She said she is running for the Belchertown School Committee to continue adding to the school’s reputation.
“Belchertown is a great community. I think we have great schools and I want to make sure that our schools stay that way. I wanted to contribute to the community and that is a way I can contribute. My expertise is education,” Magee added.
If elected, Magee said she would like to see the schools institutionalize the type of education for students to see each other as human beings.
“I am aware at the recent antisemitic acts at Jabish Brook Middle School, and I am sure there are other acts — homophobia, racism — and I feel that every few years these things seem to surface where the reality is we have to institutionalize how we educate our students so that they are able to look at each other as human beings regardless of their background,” Magee said.
She added, “I want to change the school for the better in that area and work on professional development that our staff and students need so that we can eliminate racism, eliminate sigmatism, eliminate people judging one another based on how we identify.”
One of the reasons Jackson is running for the School Committee is to bring a different perspective.
Jackson said, “I’m invested in the community. I am doing it for the kids. I am not trying to be a politician. Sometimes a unanimous decision is the worst thing for the world. Sometimes you have to have one vote against something so you can have a discussion. There are more points and views that people are scared to show. I am sick of unanimous decisions when it is a little bit controversial.”
Jackson also said he has children currently in the Belchertown Public Schools and would love to be on the School Committee to continue helping them and other students succeed.
“Like anything if you have something like that invested like your kids, now is the time to jump in. You shouldn’t jump in later before they are done,” Jackson said.
Jackson said his daughter is in fifth grade and has a confirmed individualized education plan while his son is in kindergarten and currently going through the testing process.
Jackson added, “The administrative process isn’t the easiest for support. It needs to be transparent and smoother for parents to get the special education because these are the students that fall behind quicker. I am a big proponent of confidence and as long as [students] are confident in who they are, then I don’t want to take away from that.”
Beside helping the students succeed, Jackson would like to see the Belchertown schools become the hub of the community.
“I would love to make Belchertown’s school system like the hub of the community like where back in the day where you couldn’t find a seat in the gym for basketball, and everybody would go cheer on a Friday night to support their kids or the kids of the community. The schools should be the hub of a good community and the kids are what make us work hard while we also get to know everybody,” Jackson said.
He added that he is sick of seeing people fighting on community forums and would like everyone to get along.
Jackson said, “I think we need to start gathering as a community opposed to being on the internet. Weather it is the drama club or soccer or whatever, we need to support the kids. These kids don’t know that the people that lived in Belchertown will ask what is going on in the schools and what happened with this, and they feel horrible. People who have had roots here are invested in the school so we would love to get people more invested and put roots down in Belchertown instead of being a bedroom community.”
Jackson said he is heavily invested in the community between volunteering, coaching and being a referee.
He also runs a Re/Max real estate agency in Belchertown.