How did I get this elected position without getting elected?
If you been following the Somerville news sources (or just this blog) you may know that it's been over two months since Alderman Bastardi resigned her school committee seat to take her appointment on the Board of Aldermen after the resignation of Alderman Bill Roche in December. The remaining members of the School Committee, acting within their authority under the City Charter, voted to hold an open process to select an interim Ward 1 School Committee representative to fulfill the remainder of Maureen’s term. Their initial process resulted in the selection Ben Echevarria of Gilman Terrace. Unfortunately, due to health concerns, Ben was never able to officially accept the appointment.. I was honored, as the “runner-up” in the selection process, to have been offered the appointment by the School Committee at their regular meeting last Monday night.
What am I doing for Ward 1?
I was sworn in officially at City Hall on Tuesday, and it’s been a whirlwind of activity since then. I’ve thrown myself into the job and I am hoping to learn the ropes as fast as I can while making myself available to residents, parents, PTA members and of course our wonderful children.
Wednesday night I attended a workshop/seminar at the Capuano Early Childhood Center entitled “Raising a Bilingual Child” presented by Sarah Davila, District Administrator of English Language Learners and Family & Community Partnerships. This was not “official” school committee business but I thought it a relevant enough topic here, given the high percentage of ELL (English Language Learners) students in the Ward and the highly regarded “UNIDOS” bilingual immersion program located at our own East Somerville Community School (ESCS).
On Thursday night it was back to the Capuano for my first official subcommittee meeting, the Educational Programs Subcommittee, chaired by Paul Bockelman of Ward 6. I would like to do a more expansive blog post on the contents of this subcommittee meeting, but because this post has already gotten too long and the hour is late, I’ll just quickly summarize if for now. There were two presentations given, no votes or action was required by the committee (for now). The first presentation was given by a team of administrators and teachers from Somerville High School (including headmaster John O’Teri and Somerville Teacher’s Association President Jackie Lawrence) who have been working on a plan to fundamentally adjust the way Somerville High School schedules classes, which is a bigger deal than one would have guessed. They explained the process and all the considerations required, as well as why they were proposing the change. The “headliner” for the meeting was Paula O’Sullivan, a Somerville resident who is a “data” expert with the DSAC (District & School Assistance Center) of the Massachusetts Department of Education. Paula gave a brief history of the way the Commonwealth collects testing data and how it is processed, and how this collection and processing has evolved over time. It is important stuff, I am by no means an expert after one presentation but I understand it more now than I did before the meeting. More to come on this topic - watch this space!
Friday morning I took a couple of hours off from my day job to attend, at the invitation of PTA President Melora Rush and the ESCS principal Holly Hatch, “Seuss Day” at the ESCS Edgerly building. (And yes, we’ll all be glad in September when we no longer have to specify which campus; we’ll be able to just say ‘East Somerville’ - actually, when blogging I’ll probably just use ESCS - less typing!). I have to say: being sworn in at City Hall was maybe a close 2nd, and some of the subcommittee discussion was actually very interesting and informative, but this will definitely go down as the highlight of my 1st week on the School Committee. I read “the Cat in the Hat” to a 3rd grade class, then was given the extra-special honor of reading “Hop on Pop” to the entire building when they assembled in the gymnasium. What a thrill! I may have to work on my dramatic delivery if I want to get invited back again - I’m used to just reading aloud to an audience of 2, and I can tickle them if I feel they’re getting bored with me - but I had a blast nonetheless. Thank you East Somerville students and teachers for having me!
The week ahead
Tomorrow (Monday) night March 4 at 6 PM I will attend the rules subcommittee meeting at City Hall, followed immediately at 7 PM by the regular School Committee meeting.
On Wednesday night I plan to attend the finance subcommittee meeting. I'm not assigned the finance subcommittee but I plan to attend this member of the public; it's a very important committee, especially at this time of year.
On Thursday night there is a long-term planning meeting which is a committee of the entire School Committee, so of course I will be there. Also on Thursday I've been invited once again by the ESCS to attend the monthly principal-PTA roundtable meetings, one in the morning, and one at 6PM.
And that's just the pre-planned schedule. I still intend to reach out more formally to my son Troy's school, the Capuano Early Childhood Center where I sat on the School Improvement Council until recent events swept me onto the School Committee. I informally mentioned my new position to principal Pam Holmes when I dropped Troy off on Wednesday morning, but I'm going to send a more formal letter to officially let Pam and her staff know that I'm available as a School Committee contact for the school and parents. I will need to introduce myself to the leaders of the Next Wave/Full Circle alternative High School, also located in Ward 1. Maureen has a long history of advocacy for Next Wave/Full Circle and she has offered to introduce me personally to the principal; I will do my best to continue her good work on their behalf in whatever way I can. And I'll be getting more acquainted with Somerville High School and all the other Schools in the District - as I said, it's going to be a lot of work getting up to speed but I'm determined to do it as quickly as possible and help Ward 1 families as needed during the learning curve. When necessary I'll lean on Maureen and my fellow School Committee members - ALL of whom have offered their assistance - when I get questions I don't know the answers to yet!
In the meantime I'll continue to reach out to East Somerville families; for example I have plans specifically to make contact with several advocacy groups for immigrant families and families with ELL children. I would like to hold "office hours" and/or some sort of meet and greet sessions so interested residents can meet me personally and perhaps share their questions/comments/concerns on our neighborhood schools or the District in general. I don't have a date set yet because I am still trying to get organized on the fly, but if you have any questions before I announce an official "office hours", PLEASE do not hesitate to contact me. You can reach me several ways online - via email (sroix@k12.somerville.ma.us), via facebook.com/rollzroix (you can follow my public posts without "friending" me, of course if you live in Somerville and especially Ward 1 I'd love to consider you my friend!), or via phone at 617.863.7649 (you can send a text message to the same number if you'd prefer - just ID yourself in the text please if I don't have your number already).
Thank you and I will see you around the Ward!
-Steve
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| Being sworn in by City Clerk John Long |
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| After swearing in, with Ward 4's Christine Rafal, vice-chairman of the School Committee |
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