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Date: 5/8/2019
WILBRAHAM – Sean F. Kennedy is running for re-election to the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District’s School Committee against Wilbraham resident and photographer, D. John McCarthy.
Kennedy, who is a project manager in addition to his position on the school committee, said he first ran for the School Committee three years ago because he was “Uncle Sean” to a lot of the neighborhood kids.
“I'm invested in the people I love,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said the School Committee is trying to arrange a big get-together for students and families on the field at Minnechaug to kick off the 2019-2020 school year. He sees it as an opportunity to bring the two towns together.
“There are some fundamental differences between the towns but deep down they were the same,” Kennedy said. “I try to have conversations,” with the Committee members from Hampden, Rita Vail and Heather Zanetti.
Kennedy told a story to Reminder Publishing about having a girl reach out to him because she was being bullied. He encouraged her to talk about her experiences in front of the School Committee. When he realized she was a Hampden student, he asked why she hadn’t reached out to one of the Hampden members. Kennedy said she told him that he was the one who had listened.
Kennedy also said that despite the uproar around the closing of Thornton W. Burgess Elementary School and the subsequent lawsuit by Hampden, he gets good feedback from parents of Green Meadow School.
“We need to get the lawsuit behind us,” and decide who we want to be, Kennedy said.
U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Minnechaug 209 out of 395 Massachusetts high schools. Kennedy admitted that it hurt to hear, but also pointed out that the data was from the 2016-2017 academic year and didn’t reflect what has been accomplished since Albert G. Ganem took over the superintendent position in 2016.
“We have the superintendent we need for the job,” Kennedy said, adding that the school district has improved “without a doubt.”
Kennedy rattled off a list of initiatives that have been implemented, including Benchmarks and Foundations, which is more intuitive to students, Kennedy said. He said it teaches elementary school kids the rules of why things are spelled the way they are and how grammar works rather than simply memorization and application.
Kennedy also cited Freshman Foundations, a program that prepares students entering high school with skills for writing papers and succeeding in high- school and college. They’ve also expanded the offered Advanced Placement classes.
“I'm not done,” Kennedy said. Things that Kennedy would like to accomplish include the establishment of a gifted and talented program, which would necessitate hiring another teacher for each elementary school.
Kennedy wants to switch to electronic communications, instead of sending paper communications home to parents. He said it would reduce waste and save money.
Kennedy would also like to tackle the problem of bullying. To do this he said they “need to shine a light on it. To teach empathy,” he said, and, “give kids tools on how to deal with it, give teachers tools,” as well.
Kennedy said he wants to keep building on the progress they’ve made.
“I want three more years to see what can be done with that budget. I want to be part of the solution,” he said.
McCarthy did not respond to any of Reminder Publishing’s requests for an interview.