Dear Shrewsbury Residents,
I’m running for re-election to the School Committee to help deliver the strong school system we expect in this town. This has been a difficult few years for schools, between the total shut down in 2020, the hybrid and remote schooling of 2021, and the lingering impacts of the pandemic as we begin 2022. From teachers, to parents, to children, to employers, we have all become keenly more aware of the critical importance of schools in our local ecosystem. I want to ensure that our schools continue to lead the state in developing responsible and inclusive citizens who embrace new ideas and value diverse opinions.
I am a parent of three children in the Shrewsbury schools, and I’m committed to this town’s public education system. The main reason my spouse and I moved to Shrewsbury was because of the high quality public schools. It has been a wonderful decision and I cherish that we are raising our children here. When that was threatened this past year, I devoted myself to convincing my neighbors to support a municipal tax override so we could responsibly fund our school system. I’m proud of my work on that committee and I’m proud of our citizens who voted to invest in all our municipal services.
In the last three years I’m pleased with the work conducted by the School Committee. We have accomplished much, including
-The development of a sustainable municipal-school financial plan to ensure the town remains able to fund a consistent and proper level of services;
-The opening of the new state-of-the-art Major Howard W. Beal Elementary School on Lake Street;
-Fulfilling a commitment to free full-day kindergarten for all children in town;
-Establishing a transparent community-driven process to redistrict all our elementary schools as we grew from four to five elementary districts;
-Launching a first-ever common assessment tool across grade levels K-8 to track reading and math;
-The investment in additional social and emotional supports for young people including funding more staff to support youth mental health needs;
-The responsible shepherding of federal COVID relief dollars to address the harsh impact of the pandemic on our service delivery;
-The support of additional nursing staff across the district to respond to the ever changing nature of the pandemic as we work to ensure students and staff can safely be in classrooms.
There is more work to do. First, I was the School Committee’s designee on the Town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Taskforce and I learned about ways we need to improve the culture in our schools and ensure all are welcome. Second, we have to maintain a focus on assisting our students, through our valued staff, to make up for the educational losses suffered through the disruption in the learning over the past years. Third, we need to continue to assess, and reassess, if our investments have been adequate to responding to the growing mental health needs of many young people in our community.
My style is to learn deeply about an issue and then to work collaboratively to bring about changes needed. I hope you will grant me your vote, so can I work with the current members of the School Committee, the School Department’s Administration, and important members of Town leadership to deliver the high quality results we have come to expect as Shrewsbury residents and taxpayers. I’m asking for your support, and your vote, on May 3rd.
Sincerely,
Lynsey M. Heffernan
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