hi my name is amy check away i'm running for a c in the belmont school committee this april because the next few years will be both an exciting and challenging time for the district and we need a deeply engaged and informed school committee the way i'm grateful to have this opportunity to tell you a little bit about myself and what i can contribute to the school committee so st who am i i grew up in ann arbor michigan and moved to new england just over twenty five years ago for college my parents instilled in me a passion for education and a commitment to giving back to the community i am the product of a public school system that exposed me to many wonderful learning opp nities as well as numerous teachers and friends who i am still in touch with today i moved to belmont in two thousand and twelve after living for a decade in cambridge and somerville i live near pace and park with my amazing family my older son eliza in th grade a cherry middle school and my younger son isaac is in rd grade at wellington elementary my children have thrived in the belmont public schools and benefited from its committed educators and school staff i think almost every day about how fortunate we are to be living in a community was such an excellent school system and such caring and committed residents who contribute to so many important efforts in town professionally i work as an education policy researcher and lead large scale studies for federal and state education agencies as well as private clients my work involves managing large teams of staff and multimillion dollar budgets i spend my days communicating and collaborating with others to try to solve complex problems interpret data about what works best for children and families and strategizing with policymakers about how to structure our public resources to most effectively support children's outcomes over the past six years i've spent a lot of time volunteering in our local schools particularly through leadership roles on the wellington p t o and serving on the board of the wellington after school program some think it particularly close to my heart was creating and implementing a new p program called the wellington and international family mentoring program a few years ago i collaborated with one of the district's english language learner teachers to develop the program and pair new international families at wellington elementary with mentor families for an entire school year to help ease their transition as part of the program we prepared easy to read newsletters and concrete resources that were distributed throughout the year to all of the participating families families provided a lot of positive feedback about the program and i think this kind of model could fairly easily be scaled up throughout the district so why should you vote for me for school committee this april st i am ready to help have spent time in numerous districts across massachusetts and as part of my work have talked extensively with superintendents principals union leaders educators program directors and families about what is working well and what is challenging i understand the way districts are structured and operate and i understand not only the numbers and line items in the school budget but also what the services and resources are that are in the budget and how they operate in practice i also understand the constraint resources that towns face and the multitude of needs in belmont outside of the school district i can bring all of my professional and local volunteer experiences to this role and will be able to start helping contributing on day one second i am ready to lead it is a really important time in the school district and there is a lot of work that needs to be done our town is taking on a huge new project with building the new grade seven  dollars school we need to make wise and forward thinking decisions about how to transition all of our schools to new grade configurations and how to manage access to facilities especially as the new school is under construction we will need to keep residents informed about what is happening and find good ways to listen to concerns and collaboratively strategize about solutions we need the school committee to play a leadership role in helping to manage change and make sure good decisions are made during a time when there will be a lot of moving pieces finally i will approach all of the school committee work with the best interests of our children and our town at the center i will maintain a clear focus on supporting the best teaching and learning environments that we can for all of our children so that they acquire the skills they need to succeed and contribute beyond high school i think that we will be able to do our best work and the complex the most if we remain focused and always keep the district strategic priorities at the forefront if elected i promise to serve with an open mind collaborate with others listen to the diverse perspectives in our community and work really hard to get things done police check out my website at elected amy check eight dot com for more information about me and my priorities i would be honored to have your vote on april nd thank you