Ward 1 School Committee member Ellen Gibson announced today that she will not seek re-election to her seat. She is completing her second term on the committee. With Gibson’s announcement, there are now four School Committee seats without an incumbent running for re-election (Wards 1,3, 7, and 8).
Gibson told me that she has mixed feelings about her decision, but she is seeking to create balance in her life, especially given her commitment to the Social-Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts as its chairperson of the Policy and Advocacy Committee. Her decision was made a bit easier when she learned that Kathy Marchi, who has leadership experience in social-emotional learning projects, has decided to run for the seat.
I thank Ellen for her service and wish her luck.
Dear Friends,
I am writing to let you know that after thinking about it for a long time, I have decided not to run for re-election in November.
I have enjoyed serving on the School Committee and focusing on social-emotional learning and special education. I am so grateful for the support I’ve received over the past 4 years. At the same time, I am trying to simply my life and spend more time with my family.
What makes the decision easier is that Kathy Marchi has decided to run for School Committee from Ward 1. I have known Kathy for years and she will be an exceptional School Committee member. She is a collaborative problem-solver, a thoughtful listener who asks a lot of focused and insightful questions, a very bright and inquisitive person, and has a great sense of humor. She is student-focused and truly believes in educating the whole child, ensuring that all students reach their potential. I am thrilled that she is running and I enthusiastically support her—Newton will be very lucky to have Kathy on the School Committee.
I am grateful to colleagues both on the School Committee and within the Newton Public Schools who have been so generous with their time and sharing of their knowledge with me. Newton is lucky to have so many dedicated professionals educating our students.
With warm regards,
Ellen
I’m also grateful to Ellen for serving and certainly respect her decision not to run.
But it’s unfortunate that Ellen’s announcement comes so close to the July 25 deadline for submitting signatures. I don’t know Kathy Marchi. She may be a great candidate but these late announcements (and we’ve seen them in prior years too) impead others who might have considered running from running. And I think everyone (except perhaps the person who might be running or the person who selected someone to succeed them) believes elections are better when they are contested.
Thanks to Ellen for your service and for your continued work on Social Emotional Learning, which is such an important area where we can make meaningful progress in educating the whole child.
Ellen has made me a better School Committee member and I will miss her rigorous sound judgement, unfailingly respectful engagement, and deep commitment to making NPS a better school system. She has been known for her work in Social Emotional Learning policy, but her long-time service as an aide at Underwood and her training as an attorney provide her with a perspective that has strengthened committee work across a spectrum of topics. Ellen, you have my heartfelt best wishes for a gratifying and productive post-school-committee life!
I’ve enjoyed getting to know Ellen, and am sorry she’s stepping down. Steve & other SC members–how will this affect the board, losing more than half of your institutional memory in one fell swoop?
Andreae, it is true that Setti, Matt, Margie, Angela and Ellen have invaluable institutional memory and this will be missed. But deep experience remains: Diana, Ruth, Margaret and I have been together on School Committee for four years, and Diana and I have served for six years. We have all been fully engaged in the business of our committee and have been responsible for important portfolios of work. And finally there are many highly qualified candidates in the running this fall, and I am very optimistic about us being able to make a smooth transition into another capable and high functioning body next January.
I think that institutional memory is not such a problem. It never really came up as an issue when I served on the SC. Especially, when new problems arose or improvements were key.
I think the onboarding of a substantial number of new SC members will be a very good thing for Newton.
In Framingham, as we move from 7 SC members elected at large, with no residency requirement, to 9 SC members elected by district (ward), at most 4 members of the current SC will remain, possibly as few as 2, but there will be 1 past chair for sure.
Many really good candidates have appeared and that will make the next Framingham SC a great one.
No worries about institutional memory!