Education First
Purcell, Faulkner, Barba
Candidates for Roxbury Board of Education
First and foremost, we understand and appreciate educators’ vital role in teaching our children while respecting parents’ rights to raise their children. We support the “back to basics” approach to academics mentioned last year and believe now is the time to build upon a strong foundation by putting education first.
* We are all parents dedicated to providing children with a supportive and academically focused learning environment!
* We will represent the best interests of the students and staff to continue to make the Roxbury School district something we can be proud of!
* We will create a solutions-focused perspective while managing policy and budget issues.
* We will continue the forward momentum that has Roxbury schools improving every year!
Let's Put "Education First" in Roxbury
Special Education
We will work hard to ensure that the special education community’s needs are met through IEP compliance and access to necessary resources, including but not limited to having enough staff and support.
Supporting Staff
We will work to support teachers and retain those dedicated to educating the children of Roxbury.
Education
We agree with last year’s “back to basics” focus on academics, improving district reading and math proficiency.
Now that we are working on building a solid foundation, we will continue to put Education first and build upon that foundation while continuing to expand and support our special ed programs, STEM, trade programs, and electives such as Interact, ROTC, Band, Choir, Theater, Robotics, Aviation.
Budgets
We will work diligently with our BA and superintendent to address budget issues so that the burden does not fall on Roxbury’s taxpayers.
Funding
Sadly, many districts across the state took a huge hit in state aid this year, Roxbury being one of them. Kudos to Mr. Mondanaro, Dr. Santora, and the board for balancing the budget in response to this. However, it is still important to focus on our expenditures so that we can be sure academics and safety are the priorities and every child is getting what they need to succeed. While “a penny saved is a penny earned,” it won’t be enough to counter the massive loss of state aid.
For that (among many other reasons), we are pleased to learn that a Roxbury Education Foundation has been launched to raise money. We look forward to supporting them in any way possible!
Transparency
We are pleased that the majority of our BOE members made live streaming meetings a priority and were successful in bringing them to Roxbury!
As parents, we understand the difficulty of attending meetings that can prevent some parents from being as involved as possible in their children’s education. While we encourage residents to attend meetings and voice their concerns, it is wonderful to have this option. In keeping with our views on transparency in meetings, we also believe in full transparency in all aspects of your children’s education.
This includes access to planned discussion topics or instruction in extra-curricular clubs and activities so that parents can understand the full scope of what their minor children are involved in. No secrets should be kept from parents. We trust Roxbury parents to raise their children while trusting our excellent Roxbury staff to enforce a code of conduct so that all students feel safe and respected in all areas.
Parental Rights
“No school can work well for children if parents and teachers do not act in partnership on behalf of the children’s best interest.” ~ Dorothy H. Cohen This quote sums up exactly how we feel about parental rights. No secrets, no adversarial relationships, just trusting one to raise the children and the other to educate them.