over the format this morning and i think i sent everyone an e mail so you're aware of this but the way we'd like to do it is each candidate will have one minute for an opening statement and then we have three questions a total of three questions for you all so members of the school committee in the monday morning we respect everybody's time here we're going to be very strict keeping track of the time so that you very much janice and please bear with me i was trying to figure out this weekend how we can make it fair for each of you so we don't all those start at one end and  three members of the board of selectmen and it has to be a simple majority job point the candidate so we'll see how that plays out and may take in a number of rounds if it is more than the past that first round of voting the two candidates with   professionally and i have made my career over the last twenty years of the intersection technology and finance health roles ranging from product manager to strategy consulting to venture capitalist over the last two and a half years i've been part of the group that's been building a company in boston in the mobile advertising technology space i personally pride public education a big advocate of public education and really excited about the prospect of being able to contribute as a any i have then a resident of belmont for more than ten years now we have three children my husband two of which are currently in the public school there at the butler and you know i've been looking for a way to contribute to the only through the school but just in the community in general and with the background that i have i have encountered degree i've worked in accounting finance business analysis i'm also an entrepreneur i them to continue to make belmont the town as well as the school drive as it has bottom line schools as a career public school teacher i think i bring a deep understanding of how a school system works from the ground up i understand how school committee policies and decisions impacts teachers and students on the classroom level i also have a strong understanding of town government and years of experience as a town meeting member and dating back to when i was in high school as a school committee member of the student representative in mil i understand that it's a difficult balancing act required to justify the needs of the schools within the constraints of a perpetually tight town budget and also bring a diversity of perspective as the parent of young children just entering the school idel i am eight management consultant a tech entrepreneur at that not resident and mom to wellington third grader i have a hard business skills required to get the job done as well as a deep passion for public education o the biggest challenges any school district faces resources and how best to allocate them given limited finances and the question we must always ask is not whether this policy will will have a positive impact but whether this policy is the best use of limited educational dollars if given the chance to serve on the belmont school committee i will constantly analyze and impact all of those policies that will have the greatest impact on our students learning and lifelong s just doing very well student story low fall across the board test scores however you measure it so that's a good start i think the teachers and the commitment of the staff who work in the schools is a huge strength as well  and also the dedication of the students and the parents who are involved and work hard to be the best students they can be we really take things seriously and parents being highly involved in terms of challenges i think moment piece a significant challenge as i think is a town that's dependent upon most primarily taxes from residential tax base to fund their schools there so we have a high tax rate but there's never enough to go around and i think that innovating within that picture and trying to figure out how to maintain the successes we've had in the past with increasing enrollment differing needs of students than in the past with the you know higher and higher percentage of the budget coming from special ed costs and also the recent influx of more and more students media and all the needs of all of those students as well as you know the entire population of students with the limiting factor of the budget i think are huge  s they have access to an enviable array of resources and dedication to helping children or i think these all they also the very supportive community  expectations and ongoing want to make sure that you have the support to keep them going forward and that you don't turn your schools into a christmas tree continually adding something wonderful something wonderful something wonderful until it all falls say i think one of the greatest strengths of the belmont school system is our commitment to innovation and i've been incredibly impressed by the way that the belmont schools have integrated technology and stem courses into the curriculum so thinking about the i pads that we rolled out in the high school some of the innovative teaching programs that we have in the elementary school like the fast math curriculum that allow students to progress at their own rates and gives teachers that visibility into how each individual student is progressing and in a large class where a teacher may not have as much one on one time with each student as they had but i think one of the biggest challenges that we that we've talked about and that the belmont schools face currently is the growing enrollment is the fact that each class when we look at the integrating class going up gets larger as we go down and so we have more and more students coming into the school system how do we accommodate that i think there's a number of ways that we can handle it i think class sizes of course an issue because it is not the only issue there are other factors at play that provide a good education for our students and so taking taking steps to reduce class be most effective in the younger grades studies show that k through three has the biggest impact has the biggest impact there and then as we go into the older grades not focusing as much on class size but focusing on innovation how can we bring in more classes and technology more classes in computer science in computer languages robotics leveraging in the mit media lab in the resources that are around us to open our students eyes to other opportunities as well and really enriching the curriculum that  so i'll start with the challenges of the month and the challenge obviously of the capacity and room was mentioned and that is something that the town and the committee will have to look at in terms of what to do with that to build a new school or expand on cost we are one of those communities around and finally the excellent school systems top rated high school in the state so much has already been said but i think i would echo a lot of the the ideas that could have been mentioned around around the strengths i think the one that stands out for me is the community involvement and a really strong set of teachers and administrators that ha that community involvement from parents and teachers and i think it really is the hallmark of what makes a great school district and i think the challenge certainly is it well there's a short term and a long term and i think the short term is very much very near term we're to address that there we have to find creative ways to continue to fund programs to come together as a community to figure out what the priorities are for the town and and where the school fits into the broader priorities i think perhaps the bigger challenge is the one that's more structural you know to address some of the budgetary issues in the in the near term and contemplate overrides the things i think a structural problem though is the enrollment when you look at the enrollment numbers continue to increase in rome and in aggregate is up eight percent over the last five years but if you look at individual classes the number twos are graduating high schoolers the students are coming in the kindergarten there is a stark difference and that that scale of having to support those students over time is going to present i think the single biggest challenge  belmont specifically because of the school system i mean my husband and i were in different towns and we specifically look at belmont to buy our home because this is where we wanted to raise our family the school system is incredible you know as was said previously the administrators the teachers the families everyone is so committed to you know keep bringing our children up properly and completely and you know trying to make this town you know as beneficial to everyone as possible and it's amazing i mean everyone is so committed and so involved which is also why i'm here to get more involved it's we continue that process  and but on the other side agreed again is the you know lead the expanding in a moment is the biggest challenge i mean from even from my perspective being in early childhood education i'm you know i have a week list so long because all these families are moving into belmont and i can't you know you know i'm limited in what i can do and that only extends into you know next the public school system so it's definitely going to be a challenge but it's also you know a reflection on how well we're still doing and how well we can continue to do we just need to bring in some fresh creative energetic ideas to figure oh well honestly to pinpoint it i'm not sure because i don't know all the backgrounds of the folks that are currently on the committee but what i can tell you is what i can bring  you know i bring a fresh energy i have the very background stemming from as i mentioned earlier accounting finance business analysis consulting work  to caring for young children you know i've taken recent early education courses which i going to continue with and you know also having my own children in the system as i think most of us do you know the energy that i would bring is to make the town and the school system better like try and do the best we can to balance out the the financial constraints between what the town house and what the school committee has and you know make sure that everybody is getting their fair share and making sure that you know that everyone that they were able to  balance so i think there's a deep depth of business experience of understanding of the challenges that organizations face and a sense of what it takes to execute on those on the solutions solve all problems that we do that we face in the school district there is a huge opportunity in the coming years for us to bring technology and to leverage the power of technology to to address some of the challenges we face and they like to think that i bring so my career has been as a management consultant which means i have done anything and everything under the sun every single time i'm assigned a new project it's a new challenge i never know what the problem is that i'm to be walking in asked to solve but my job is to understand complex issue come up with a proposed solution and make sure that i deliver results i think that positions me very well to help the school committee because we never know what challenges we may face from school from class and roman size to fight financial issues to new proposed change to the curriculum and ways to advantage can you can continue to innovate excuse me i'm also an innate problem solver i have a tech start up as well so when i see a problem i like to solve it i built my own company that helps families coordinate child care all across the united states and that came out of a real need that i saw when i was a younger mother to a ten three year old son and i couldn't find a babysitter myself so i went out and started a company to solve that problem and to bring that solution to families all across the u s so i have a good perspective on how to identify a problem how to solve a problem as well as a deep financial understanding of how to run a business and how to operate a school committee like it's a business and be judicial with our resources and make sure they're always making  investment both for the short term for now as well as looking long term and how do we have a stable budget and provide a good education for our students into the future thank you thank you so much so i want to say that as a newcomer to the mine i would definitely provide an outsider's perspective way and a fresh look on issues i would bring my perspective as a parent of a child who was in the california public school system for six years and also as an administrator at a highly competitive private school and how that aren't playstation functioned and managed i have a very strong practical experience and expertise and education you in terms of the schools that the skill set that i think i would bring to the committee as i mentioned briefly before i have young children just and during the school system and i think that's a little bit of a different perspective than having high school or  older students or middle school high school or shouldn't in terms of seeing what's happening in the elementary schools now and skin certain issues there but i think most importantly the fact that i am an active public school teacher  although i currently teach part time which gives me more free time but i'm familiar with a lot of the challenges that teachers are facing every day there's a lot of new mandates from the state and the federal government that are challenging to support and then role in the schools things like we tell mandate having district determine measures that every educator must establish the teacher evaluation process which is new from the last couple of years of switching from am cast to the park task and adapting to the common core standards i have a lot of every day experience with what's challenging about that what's what those things bring that's good but also what those things bring that is a real challenge for teachers to feel like they can still do their best job and meet the needs of the students with more and more and more sort of administer the of that they have to deal with i also have  close to ten years of experience as being a team leader in the school so leadership within a school which i think with all due respect is different than running a business with a business few can't you can cut things that are working you can you can get rid of things in a way that i don't think you can in education we have all the students we have it's our job to meet all of their needs and if their needs are outplacement special ed services if their needs are you know actually something that i thought long and hard about before i submitted my letter of interest to disk will committee and you know i'm very selective and in how i volunteer my time and what i do with my time and you know what even in my career i think about work life balance and it's incredibly important to me and i am i'm willing to sacrifice for things that i really care about and so when i say when i when i sat down to submit my my letter i said you know will i have the time to actually do the job that i want to do with this conflict with other with other you reaching a bit i guess a bit of a point both professionally and personally where i do have a bit more free time a year old twin daughters and those who have eight year olds you know they do eventually reach a point of being somewhat self sufficient and then they're sort of getting to that point in that  frankly allowed me to myself and my wife to have a little bit more free time and figure out what is it that we want to want to do and i've been looking for different opportunities to give back to the community for ways to get involved in local area nonprofits i mean this is one that really sort of  caught my attention my mother served on the school board with the school committee for a decade when i was growing up and i saw how much satisfaction she got out of it i saw how much of a contribution she felt like she was making and while it was meaningful time in many ways it was timely for the family i think both she and and i and the family sort of appreciated that and felt like that was a tradeoff well worth making so from my perspective if it is one way or i know it will be demanding  if selected i'm contributing the time necessary to be effective in the position then i also agree i mean i would not have submitted a letter of interest if i wasn't committed to putting in the time needed and i definitely realize that you know the next few months are critical months and you know the end your process that you go through with the budgeting and everything coming out so i also feel that i've gotten to a point  i mean all my children or need ok my oldest of seven and a half but but there is you know she helps her sisters as well so it's you know my husband i definitely feel like we're at a point where we do have a little more flexibility and and i haven't put myself out there to do anything like this yet and i've been meaning to and i've been wanting to because i think it would not only benefit me to be involved in especially something with adults from my usual daily job but also you know to give back to the community to give back to the schools and to learn more about the whole process in general so that's why i said you know what let's give it a shot and at least you know put my name in the hat and i've got some experience i think i could definitely bring some good energy and you know and do the best i can do that to continue the work that you guys have done thank you  as i mentioned i do work part time and active classroom teacher but i teach three classes and i'm done teaching at eleven forty five in the morning every day so i have plenty of daytime availability  but also as everyone mentioned i did think really long and hard before submitting a letter i wanted to be a school committee member since i was sixteen and i was a student member of the school committee in melton and i have never felt up until this point that i was really in the place in terms of having their wealth of experience and maturity but also in terms of having the time because i have a lot of educational experience now for many years but i haven't had the time in the past but now that i have adapted to my part time working situation i feel that i really do have the time i want to visit sions that my husband i made when we did our cross country move that i would take a break from paid work while our family got settled and now that the children are in school everyone has made at least one friend most of the boxes are a parent i find for myself the first time and memory i swimming in time on the reasons that i decided to put my name to submit for this vacancy it was i have a large amount of time as well as experience an interest in getting to know my community about her and offering my service time to say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come here you know it's a public school something that i am completely passionate about i am a product of public schools i grew up in charing down about forty five minutes south of here and my family was in seattle for about five years and when we were moving back to the east coast for my son started kindergarten finding a school district that had the best public schools was my number one priority and i am so happy that we chose belmont my son is now he's in third grade at wellington and we can't say enough positive things about the experience that he's had both with his teachers and with the administrators outside of the classroom and so i very much enough in the pot of my heart want to be able to get back to the community thank you very much i want to say thank you for letting me meet with you and discuss my credentials i want to remind you that again i have both of expertise and experience with educational technology and to keep in mind that technology is not necessarily about that gives most in the gadgets but about the changes and different processes and ford says i don't know as an organization how they can grow and improve that way as a department head and a tech expert i have a lot of experience with creating and evaluating budgets i also love spreadsheets as well i truly enjoy working as part of a team and building decisions by consensus i think it's actually the most effective way to run an organization and that in the next several months i am in a position to make the school committee work my top priority thank you very much and i think that you have a difficult choice ahead of you because listening to everyone at the stable i think everyone seems like they have really great things to bring to the table something that i feel like sets me apart is both my current experience and education being a classroom teacher now and my understanding of all the issues that come along with trying to make the best experience for the students combined with being a town meeting member for almost ten years between seven years and belmont and time in milton as well and that experience at the local town level and education and town government i think is really important thank you very much for having me here and spending your time to listen to all of us it's it's been an experience i've never been through this process before it was very interesting  you know i feel like that i agree with those folks who've already spoken that you really i don't think you can go wrong with whomever you choose for the position today but i just want to read a rate that even though i do have children in the system already which of course dedicates to the disposition and to the town i'm not a fanatical parent i am not one of those people that you know everything has to go to the school like it's that's not me an understand there's the balance between especially financially and specifically financially between the town and the school and trying to make everything come together and collaborate on issues that come up so but and i'm also not a political person so i'm not you know it's not this way or that way and some people are some people are but ok thank you thanks for your time so as many people have said my wife and i moved  here because of the schools and we've been through all the experiences that our daughters are pat and obviously the same challenges ahead for the for the town and for the schools and i think those challenges are going to require collaborative and creative solutions i mean this is the hallmarks of my my business career is finding ways to to find common ground to a collaborative process different teams and different groups with different interests and find creative innovative solutions and  france and in many different areas i'm going to vote for susan and the reason for that is because of her legal background and working  this position before so i think to thank you for the support so far i remain credibly excited about the prospect of continuing to work and collaborate with all of you on the various challenges ahead i think i do believe that we will be confronted with some very tough problems i think maybe the hallmark of my my business career has been working collaboratively to identify those problems to try to find common ground and to figure of ways to to address the challenges that we face and and figure out a way to kind of bring everything in the process and i do think that in this particular role that will be will be critical  i'm hoping that i can leverage my business experience my finance experience my technology expertise to hopefully bring some skill sets to the committee that he would value and that could help down what was a hole and think is exactly where we are right now that would be helpful to have time join the