Academic Excellence

Academic excellence has been my top priority, and was a large part of my platform three years ago, which is why I was adamant about updating the outdated and underperforming elementary ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum. After three years of persistent work advocating for this change, I’m happy to report funding for a new curriculum is now included in our level service budget for FY26. 

During my first year, I also recognized the need for additional support in Math. At the time, we had one math interventionist whose time was split between 4 elementary schools, including time spent traveling between schools. This led me to advocate for additional Math interventionists. As a result, I am proud to say we now have a dedicated Math interventionist at each of our four elementary schools to better support our students.

School Space Needs - Chair of Facilities Committee

Space has long been a concern in our district. During my second year on the School Committee, I joined the Facilities Advisory Committee. I pushed to revisit the underutilized 4th-floor attic space at the Cunningham and Collicot schools. This year, as chair of the committee, I helped secure $5.5 million to renovate the 3rd and 4th floors, which will provide four new classrooms, additional office spaces, and a new library, with renovations slated for completion in 2026 and 2027. Although my primary focus has been immediate space solutions, I respect the work of the School Building Committee and look forward to hearing from the Massachusetts School Building Authority on any grants that will be provided to the town. Given our current budget challenges, I believe it is essential to review a detailed operating budget and staffing plan to fully understand what is needed to build and run a new school.

Transparency and Accountability 

I believe in accountability and I have worked hard to bring more transparency to our financial processes. I asked that we begin cross posting all School Committee Finance Subcommittee meetings which allows each School Committee member to attend. Most recently, I advocated for recording all Finance Subcommittee meetings to further enhance transparency. These meetings will now be recorded and shared by Milton Access TV.  

Chair of Policy Committee

As chair of the School Committee’s Policy Subcommittee, I collaborated with the central office team to review and streamline the district's policies—updating those that required changes and eliminating those that were no longer relevant.  

Leading the effort to rebrand both the District and school logos was another important initiative I was involved in. It was important for me to create a unified visual identity while still celebrating the unique character of each of our six schools.

Finally, I worked hard to redesign the school year calendar to make it more accessible for families, understanding how important it is for everyone to have easier access to scheduling information.

Current Budget Issues

I am the only current School Committee member who advocated for an operational override before considering a new school debt exclusion override in July of 2024, after we became aware of the FY24 deficit. I understood that FY25 would bring contract negotiations, and it had been communicated by the Town Administrator in the early part of 2024 that we could face a significant deficit in FY25 as well. My goal was to take a proactive approach, ensuring we were well-positioned to manage future challenges while protecting teaching positions. I support a level service override, and understanding the urgency and significant impact to our district, I took proactive steps to ensure the override vote was placed on the April 29th ballot. Additionally, I recommended including some of the much needed requests from the needs based budget, such as the ELA curriculum. I recognize an override of this magnitude is a significant challenge for taxpayers and I will continue to work hard to tighten spending moving forward. I fully support bringing in an external auditor or consultant to conduct a thorough review of the MPS budget as soon as possible.

When the proposal to cut spring sports was brought up in a School Committee Finance Subcommittee meeting as a way to address the FY25 deficit, I spoke out against it. I strongly believe in the vital role extracurricular activities play in supporting students' mental and physical well-being. We must find solutions to our budget challenges without eliminating middle and high school sports, clubs, and theater.

I continue to strongly oppose the large-group sub model as a solution to the budget deficit. This approach, which places students from multiple classes in an auditorium with a single teacher, significantly reduces valuable learning time and fails to provide the support our students deserve—especially our middle and high school students, who were most affected by COVID.

As I have for the past three years, I remain committed to advocating for the resources and strategies that have the greatest impact on our students and teachers