My Educational Philosophy
My educational philosophy is that a public school system needs to faithfully serve all students who attend from the community, regardless of their intellectual ability, their household environment, or even their interest level in formal education. That means providing a variety of learning opportunities and experiences that not only teach the traditional '3 Rs' (Reading, wRiting, aRithmatic), but also that can spark a passion for learning and creativity overall. This passion and creativity doesn't have to be focused only on traditional academic topics like math and science. It could involve creative expressions in art, music, or poetry. It could involve a passion for sports or physical education. It could also involve a passion for something as simple as "helping animals." In short, a public school system should not be trying to produce unimaginative 'worker robots' that help businesses earn more profits, nor should it only provide the absolute minimum in services in order to to cut property taxe sInstead, a public school system should help the community to grow well-rounded, interesting, curious, and kind human beings... the type of folks you'd want as a friend and/or neighbor.
My educational philosophy has been be a core part of my decision-making process as a member of the New Boston School Board over the last three years. Fiscal responsibility is incredibly important, obviously, but a given policy or program is not only about how many tax dollars it might cost (or save) compared to the alternative. Many times the real question is about how many, and how much, children could benefit from investing resources in a given proposal. For instance, a full day Kindergarten program has the potential to positively impact every single child going to NBCS, with little to no additional funding required above existing levels.
Recently, the School Board received information on a variety of physical building upgrades and repairs that overall could cost many millions of dollars. However, some of these replacements and repairs will actually produce long term savings due to energy efficiency upgrades, or otherwise are required to ensure safety and avoid expensive emergency situations, such as when an aging boiler breaks in the middle of winter. In these cases, the overall decisions on whether and when to move forward with these projects are not just about how many cents-per-thousand the project might cost, but rather how these projects could positively affect student learning (and safety!), and how it would enrich the overall educational environment of NBCS for the next 20+ years. So while obviously finding competitive bids for such projects is an important and fiscally responsible thing to do, the ultimate decision sometimes boils down to how does it benefit the students at the end of the day, and whether these funds could be better used elsewhere. This is the type of cost-benefit analysis that needs to be considered when deciding if something is a responsible use of taxpayer funds, and it is what I pledge to continue considering in my decision-making as a member of the New Boston School Board.