School Committee Race Heats Up Following Candidates' Night
The races for Falmouth’s school committee and select board are shaping up after prevalent themes and issues were discussed at the League of Women Voters Candidates Night on Wednesday, April 27.
In two contested races for the upcoming election on May 17, six candidates are vying for three seats on the school committee, and three candidates will contend for two seats on the select board.
Five of the six school committee candidates were present on Wednesday—incumbent Melissa M. Keefe and challengers Mark A. Mancini, Shea T. Brown-Kirlew, Michael G. Heylin, and Nancy A. Kerrigan. Margaret M. Souza was not present due to a medical issue but submitted written responses that were read by moderator and award-winning radio journalist Mindy Todd.
When asked about priorities for the coming year, candidates emphasized recovery from remote learning that is unique to each individual student’s needs. Mr. Heylin raised the idea of doing away with standardized testing, something that, in pursuit of his doctorate from Northeastern University, he has learned is not entirely beneficial to students’ learning. Adding to his answer, Ms. Keefe said that she would like to see more autonomy for teachers to teach the way they want.
“I would love to see [teachers] have their time to really shine, and there’s a lot of overshadowing with standardized testing and not a lot of letting teachers be teachers,” she said.
Allowing children to express their different levels of intelligence was a priority for Mr. Mancini, while Ms. Brown-Kirlew said diversity initiatives would be her focus.
In recovering from remote learning and the pandemic, candidates agreed that the post-COVID era looks different for everyone. Ms. Keefe stressed the importance of collaboration between parents and teachers, while Ms. Souza and Ms. Kerrigan said that safe environments designed to benefit students are a key to their success.
“Each student comes to school with a special skill or talent,” Ms. Souza wrote. “A focus on that as a strength provides the student with a basis to feel confident to develop in other areas, even if those areas have not been previously of importance.”
Ms. Brown-Kirlew said that the schools have done a lot to help students and wondered why all of those efforts stop in the summertime. She suggested that schools remain open for children looking to have a fun but educational summer.
“The school committee can help to make happiness and partnership with some teachers,” she said. “I propose we gather the environment for students’ education with [a] return of some normalcy in their school life.”
In the same vein, Mr. Mancini said that opening up the school committee meetings to the public while still offering a Zoom option would increase accessibility and hopefully up community engagement with school-related issues.
“I think it’s important that we bring a little bit of nuance to how we deal with situations,” he said. “It’s important to heal any wounds that happened but also to learn any lessons… it’s important that we learn the good lessons and the bad lessons and move on from there.”
A question from the audience proved to be a more difficult one for candidates to answer. The question was: “In June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy, Falmouth High School released a letter denouncing the structural/institutional racism that persists in our schools. Do you believe that structural and institutional racism persists in Falmouth Schools and if so, do you believe that Falmouth Public Schools should offer settlements to its victims if a lawsuit were filed on their behalf, given that Falmouth High has offered written admission of its persisting structural and institutional racism?”
All five of the present candidates agreed that structural racism does exist in Falmouth, but only Mr. Heylin ventured to answer the second part of the question.
“There is racism everywhere,” he said. “The point about the lawsuit, I don’t believe we should use money to pay a lawsuit hypothetically. A much more appropriate use of that money would be what Shea [Brown-Kirlew] said earlier. I liked your answer about keeping the schools open and the [free] lunch. Let’s use money to help the students out who are currently there for a better future; let’s use the money to pay our teachers and support staffs properly. There are issues but using the money for future generations is a much better use.”
Mr. Mancini, a former Falmouth police officer, took a different approach, talking about disparities in student discipline. He said that while racism and disparities between groups do exist, it is not necessarily due to the structure of the institution itself.
“Unfortunately, disparities can happen without any actual cause. There doesn’t have to be malicious or structural intent to cause that disparity,” he said. “Though there is a disparity, it’s not something within the institution that causes it. FPS does a great job to root out any [of that].”
As part of his closing remarks, Mr. Mancini said that he hopes to bring some nuance to the school committee, as it is mostly made up of parents and educators. While he has no children, Mr. Mancini said that he hopes to bring a new perspective to these issues that would be helpful in the coming years.
Ms. Souza also wrote that while she has no children, her experience with 16 nieces and nephews and her career in social work will help her be successful on the committee in bringing new insight.
Mr. Heylin said that he comes from a background that engages with real-world learning, and being a Falmouth graduate in 1998, he wants to give back to the students there now.
“I think a big thing right now is to get our kids life skills,” he said. “Not every student is going to go to college, not every student is going to go into the trades, but every student needs to know financial literacy, how to take care of themselves, how to cook for themselves. When I was in high school, we had all those classes. Now, it’s just a constant turning of ‘learn this, spit it out, forget it, we’ll see you next year.’ It’s not the schools' fault, it’s not the teachers' fault, it’s not the kids’ fault, but it is what it is.”
Ms. Keefe emphasized face-to-face interactions and accountability, something that has been hard to come by after two pandemic years of remote and hybrid learning.
“I truly love our community, I truly love our schools,” she said. “I know there is work to be done. In the last seven years that I’ve been on, I’ve really helped with positive changes. Not everything is sunshine and roses, and you have to accept that as well, and we learn from our mistakes and we’re doing the best that we can.”
Town elections will take place on Tuesday, May 17. Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM. FCTV will rebroadcast the candidates program on FCTV Channel 13 in the weeks leading up to the election, and the program is available on FCTV’s website and YouTube channel.