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Date: 10/30/2023
EASTHAMPTON – On Oct. 21, candidates for the Easthampton School Committee convened at Mountain View School for a forum ahead of this year’s election, which takes place on Nov. 7.
At the forum each candidate was provided time to give an opening statement about themselves, their experience and their desire to run for the committee. Following each candidate’s statement, they then worked their ways around tables set up in the cafeteria to meet with stakeholders and answer questions. Candidates also stopped at a Zoom table, where they were each asked a similar set of questions about their experience.
Running for the six seats on the committee are incumbents Meghan Harvey and Ben Hersey, and Sam Hunter and Laura Scott, both of whom were appointed to the position following the resignations of former members Laurie Garcia and Shannon Dunham. Running as newcomers are Lynda Broadhurst, Patricia Covalli, Eric Guyette, Linda Markee, Raymond Sliz and Timothy St. John. Covalli was not in attendance for the Oct. 21 forum.
At the Zoom table candidates responded to questions about their priorities for the upcoming term, their thoughts on banning books and more. Candidates’ responses to questions are listed in the order in which they appeared at the Zoom table.
Hunter said that the search for the new superintendent was a top priority.
“We’re going to need to put together a committee of folks from the community who would like to participate, we are going to have to put out a call for applicants. We’re going to be working with [the Massachusetts Association of School Committees] to do this, I’m really hoping to hire a consultant, I think that’s going to make it a little bit smoother this time,” he said.
Hunter also acknowledged another larger challenge in the coming months would be the budget, which will be tighter this year because this will be the first year without COVID-19-related aid.
Hunter also said he was in support of the policy against the banning of books.
“One of the things I want to make very clear, those book banning bills that we hear about and other communities passing in our area, it is not in line with current MASC policy whatsoever, so we have to pass policies that are legal and that follow MASC,” he said.
For St. John, one of the most important issues he wanted to continue address was social-emotional learning.
“The continued application of social-emotional learning is going to be very important part of what we focus on highlighting and funding the application of social-emotional learning throughout our curriculum,” he said.
He added that wanted to see an increased community focus with more accessible play areas, arts, music and theater, so “the community feels more engaged, feels more invited and has more opportunity to be present.”
St. John also said he was against banning books and supported the library.
“I believe that school libraries are essentially the informational heart of our schools, I believe that they need to be managed and funded,” he said. “I believe that we have a structure for validating and acknowledging age-appropriate material, and if there is anything that needs to be reviewed on an individual basis that can be brought to any of the appropriate administration. I feel like we are moving forward in a fairly safe and reasonable way.”
Hersey said a priority for him was the superintendent search and said he had learned a lot from the prior search.
“I will be looking forward to those discussions, I learned a lot in the last year about how that goes and I am looking forward to some exciting experiences around getting a new superintendent,” he said. “I learned quite a lot about how that works and I look forward to an opportunity to exercise skills around communication, around transparency, around connecting with more stakeholders.”
Hersey added he was looking forward to a slower search process.
Hersey said he also wanted to support the culture at Mountain View School.
“I’m really excited to see where we go next, how we can continue to synthesize the different kids from different parts of the city, I think that’s something we can absolutely work on and I’m really excited to find ways to build culture that is supportive and respectful,” he said.
Hersey said he was against any form of book banning.
“I am 100% in favor of the school library and libraries in general. As far as book banning goes, I am 100% against any kind of censorship or program that is going to deny kids’ access to books. If anything I want to make it possible for children to discover new possibilities for books,” he said.
Markee said one of her top priorities was working on the budget.
“Budget is always going to be a concern for any school district, we have a lot of ideas, we have a lot of things we want to do, but we have to look at the bottom line,” she said. “One of the things I look at when I look at the pie chart of our budget was that I see that there are more students school choicing out of our district, which we pay for, instead of those school choicing in, which means we would get revenue in.”
She also said she was interested in looking into artificial intelligence in the schools and building a sense of trust with the community.
Markee said she was against banning books from the library.
“I am firmly against banning books in any way, I believe that libraries should have open access of all materials, I believe it’s a first amendment right. The freedom of speech, I believe the freedom to read is included in that. I believe that society becomes diminished if we start banning books,” she said. “There are going to be books in that library that I perhaps do not want in that library, but it is not up to me to make the choice about what you read.”
Scott said two of her top priorities were the superintendent search and the budget.
“The new committee would begin as early as January, right on the heels of that the budget discussions would begin around January. I think advocacy, transparency and clear understanding of not only what our schools need, but what our city is able to give are important,” she said.
Scott said that she was against the censorship of any materials.
“I don’t support any sort of censorship of material, personally, in any form and I went on to say, quite frankly as the first amendment goes as a School Committee member, there is no legal vehicle by which I would have the authority to restrict access to any information in a public setting or public institution,” she said.
Along with the superintendent search, Broadhurst said one of her priorities was supporting students with disabilities.
“I had to go through a lot with my oldest child when it came to special ed. I had to advocate and fight for him every step of the way, and I think we need to work with parents and help them, because some parents don’t know what’s available for their child,” she said. “I think we need to help them with that and let them know what services are available. I feel like these children should be succeeding and being all that they can be alongside everybody else.”
Broadhurst said she was against book bans.
“I do not believe in book bans, I don’t think any books should be banned. I think they should be available for all students. I do believe that parents do have a right to say something may not be appropriate for their young child and that is their family beliefs, and I think that should be respected,” she said. “As far as banning any books, this is not a good thing to do.”
Harvey said a top priority was the superintendent search, with what will be a new committee entirely.
“We have an interim superintendent who is wonderful, but that needs to be addressed immediately. We have already talked about it at School Committee meetings, but the makeup of the committee is changing. When the new members are sworn in in January, that’s the group who will decide how that process will move forward,” she said. “That will need to be done thoughtfully, transparently, with a lot of community input.”
Harvey said she was “vehemently” against book bans.
“No book bans, we are not doing it. The bottom line is that students in our schools have to have access to all the materials that an expert in that field, the librarian, believes should be there,” she said. “Book banning or limiting, or age restrictions is not legal or anything I would pursue.
Sliz said one of his top priorities was the superintendent search, and he said hiring was something he had experience in.
“Having been a chief of police I do have quite a bit of experience relative to hiring processes, background checks, so on and so forth, and certainly feel comfortable in the search and hiring a new superintendent,” he said.
Sliz said he was “totally against” book banning, but did say he wanted some parent input in what is available at the library.
“I did have one concern about the availability of this material to all students. Not everyone of us is going to go into the library with their parent, and I think every parent should have some input as to what is available for their kids to read,” he said.
Guyette said one of his biggest priorities was the budget.
“I’m well aware that a budget is a big part of a School Committee’s role, and I think I understand that there are many things that must be paid for, there must be transportation, there are programs that students need, so I think that understanding that is the reality but there are other things we can hopefully be involved in,” he said.
Guyette said he was against banning books and said that it was important to read things that someone might disagree with to understand it. He added that people could choose to not engage with content they did not agree with.
“To keep it as simple as possible, any time you want to ban something, whether it’s a book or any content, it comes from a place of fear, and often an ignorance of that content. I know for me personally there are plenty of books at the library I have no interest of reading, but I don’t believe those should be banned because maybe someone else wants to read them,” he said.
The full forum is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAHfHeom8E&t=4s.