The Boston Globe and the Newton Patch report that Shawn Fitzgibbons has joined the race for the Ward 6 School Committee seat.
“As an active community leader and school activist, I am excited to announce a run for the Ward 6 seat on the Newton School Committee,” said Fitzgibbons, who has two children in the Newton Public School system. “I know how valuable our public education system is to our children, and to our community.”
Fitzgibbons recently stepped down from his position as the Chair of the Newton Democratic City Committee.
He’ll be running in the November election against Paul Levy to replace current School Committee member Ruth Goldman in the Ward 6 seat.
The city is always better off when there is competition for municipal offices, and I look forward to our (virtual and in-person) discussions and debates over the coming months.
Shawn has been an active partisan for years, and while I agree with him politically on many things, his tone and approach are not what we need in Newton.
Add in the fact that Paul Levy is the alternative (though I’d much prefer he’d run for mayor, SC doesn’t fully leverage his capabilities) and its not really a competition at all in my mind.
Paul Levy would be an outstanding Mayor. I hope he will consider running for Mayor and he will have a seat at the table as an ex officio member of the School Committee. I agree with Alec that Paul’s experience and skill set are well suited to serve the citizens of Newton as Mayor.
Paul and Matt seem to have enjoyed great success in commandeering this blog for their anti-union, anti-teacher objectives over the last 12 months using the strategies explained in Paul’s How a Blog Held Off the Most Powerful Union in America – apparently that bothers none of this blog’s overseers or participants.
But after reading the embarrassingly obsequious praise heaped upon Paul Levy in the two relevant Ward 6 SC threads, I genuinely wonder: does anyone with any decency (or unimpaired memory) participate in this blog anymore?
As Eileen McNamara1 wrote, forget about the personal indiscretions – those aren’t any of our business. But here is a man who committed egregious professional misconduct2 while the city’s elite looked the other way, and then made off with a $1.6 million severance package from a nonprofit that we all pay to support, directly or indirectly.
The state’s attorney general (who was not exactly an enemy – Paul contributed $3,800 to her campaign), finally came out and said that he “clearly endangered the reputation of the institution and its management.’’ Yet this is someone who deserves to hold elected office and be praised as a “leader”?
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2010/11/30/the-getaway/
1With the benefit of hindsight, a review of Eileen McNamara’s 10- and 20-year-old columns reveals that she was easily Boston’s best columnist.
2″In my opinion”
Bravo, Michael.
Maybe a year ago all that above would have had some marginal relevance in the context of getting to know the candidates. But it’s 2021 now. Newton Public Schools are in a crisis. Whichever candidate convinces me that they truly understand that, and that the only thing they care about is providing a quality education, has my vote.
This will be an interesting race.
I’d rather have Paul’s expertise and clear-eyed analysis than Shawn’s jaundiced view that the world rotates around his party politics and lack of experience.
I can’t see that there’s really any choice: Levy is the proven entity.
I was so excited when I learned that Shawn plans to run for School Committee. I’ve known him for years and have long admired his leadership skills and devotion to our community.
I’m a little baffled by people decrying his “partisanship”. He was the *president* of the NDCC…was he supposed to be…non-partisan…in that role? In his years as NDCC president he was always a strong public advocate on issues affecting the organization and our city. Local party committees are not the garden club…they’re inherently controversial. He did not shy away from that aspect of the job.
Shawn has always demonstrated his deep commitment to progressive values, and his years of leadership and hard work at the local level have been an important brick in the wall of democracy and of the progressive movement.
As a leader he has shown discipline, respect for process, and strong communication skills. He clearly understands the importance and role of policy and how to be an effective advocate. These are all crucial attributes and skills for a School Committee member. I’m delighted that he’s running and I’m excited to support him.
If nothing else this race sure won’t be lacking in arrogance or hubris. Given Bridget Ray-Canada’s decision to step down from the Ward 1 SC seat it’d be great to see other promising young women of color step up to run, starting with this Ward 6 seat. Newton’s School Committee definitely needs shaking up but I don’t see either of these establishment-based candidates accomplishing that, unless you’re longing for a return to the Matt Hills (he supports Levy) era. Hopefully Newton can do better.
Somehow many bloggers support favorite candidates based on a number of factors including personality and belonging to a particular political organization/club.
I Am proud to vote for the the best candidate based upon capabilities and past performance.
Paul Levy is by far the best candidate…he’s got my vote!!
For every 1 candidate that runs on, “I’m a leader…” I’d love to see 3 more that runs on “I’m a listener.”
Whether it’s school committee or city council, local government should be the most intimate, and user friendly form of government. I’d love to see someone who takes feedback from the community they were elected to serve, rather than try to bend public policy into the world they would like to see.
I’d love to see candidates who spends more time responding to constituent than Tweeting about the global issue du jour. Candidates who are more devoted to solving Newton’s issues than that of the region, the state, the country or the world. The work starts here.
What Mr. Chervinsky said. Arrogance, hubris, partisanship. This race has it all.
I cannot wait to be done w/ NPS; just a couple more years now. What a continuous disappointment it has been.
I agree with Matt we need listeners in our leadership positions. Not those who pretend to listen and then just proceed as they had originally planned to do. Particularly for School Committee they need to listen to parents on what is happening with the schools and what we are seeing on the ground with our kids. They cannot listen to the fluff that all is ok and our peer districts are seeking us out efforts advice and that we opened more schools then any other district blah, blah. They need to be able to dig deep and hold people accountable not just say everyone is working hard. Tough questions need to be asked of NPS.