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Priorities:
High Academic Standards: Cambridge must have high academic standards for all students. All children, regardless of their learning style or academic achievement, deserve a school system that strives for excellent education for all. I will consistently work to ensure that our staff sees the strengths in each student, and works with those strengths to support our children's academic careers.
Special Education: I will work to improve the way special education services are delivered. Cambridge has many students who learn differently and who need extra support in order to reach their full potential. Currently, many of those children are not receiving the services they need. Our special educators are working hard but need more resources. I want to create a Special Education Department that is responsive to parent concerns and one that is able to evaluate children’s needs sooner rather than later and then delivers whatever services are needed to meet these children’s needs. I will do this by ensuring that the Special Education Parent Advisory Council has a seat at the table with the School Department, calling for more specialist, such as school psychologists, social workers, speech and language specialists, occupational therapists and tutors. In addition, I will call for increased professional development for teachers so they can better meet the needs of special education students.
Controlled Choice: When controlled choice was first introduced to CPS it was designed to create more diverse schools across the city. Over the past ten years, as the demographics of Cambridge have changed, we have seen an increase in the number of mandatory assignments, resulting in many families choosing to leave the system. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If I return to the school committee, I will continue to look for changes to the policy that will decrease mandatory assignments while maintaining our desire for diversity. Possible changes include re-creating popular programs, looking at a different assignment policy, increasing the number of schools parents can choose, and lifting the "hold" on unfilled seats to decrease time on the waiting list. These are ideas that need further discussion and may not be the answer to all of the policy's issues, but it should be a priority of the school committee to address this issue.
Early Childhood Education: I will work to expand and improve our early childhood education programs. Cambridge has excellent early childhood teachers and programs; however, there are still too many children who enter public school well behind their peers. Research shows that early childhood education is vital to a successful academic career. I will call for the Cambridge Public Schools to work more closely with city run and private pre-school programs to increase our communication and coordination of services and to ensure that children entering the CPS have received the highest quality of early childhood education.
Support our Inclusionary Model: Cambridge has a policy of inclusion. Children with various educational needs learn side by side in our classrooms. This is a philosophy that I support. However, believing in inclusion is not enough. We must support inclusion. Our teachers need increased support and resources to meet the diverse needs of their students. Teachers often struggle to support those students who are above grade level, those on grade level and those behind grade level. They struggle to manage behavior issues while at the same time, attend to those students who sit quietly. We have tremendous teachers and we must do all we can to give them what they need to do their jobs right.
School Funding: I will work to ensure that schools and teachers are receiving the funding they need to provide excellent education. The School Committee, as overseers of the School Department budget, has the ultimate responsibility to make sure that our financial resources are being spent wisely. With a budget as large as ours, teachers and schools to often find themselves short of resources and in need of supplies. This is unacceptable and I will work to ensure that this changes.
Creating Emotionally and Physically Healthy Schools: I believe that children cannot learn if they don’t feel safe. Many parents have talked with me about their children being bullied. Many teachers feel overwhelmed and spend more time on behavior management instead of teaching. I will call for a review of our anti-bullying programming, and call for an increase in social workers to help children struggling with behavior issues. We must also ensure that our facilities are safe and exceptionally maintained and that we are providing our children with healthy breakfast and lunch in order to create the safest and most supportive school environment.
Budget Transparency: While on the School Committee in 2004 and 2005, I was often the lone voice calling for greater budget transparency. As a result of my questioning and demanding explanations as to where our money was going, the superintendent provided an explanation of our per pupil spending, created an easier to understand budget document, and increased the number of public budget reports made to the School Committee. Even with these accomplishments, I believe that we must continue to evaluate our budget process and spending and make sure that the Cambridge public understands how and why our money is spent.
Increase Parent Input and Improve Communication: Cambridge has always been a city that welcomed community input. We have been a city that has championed the participation of our citizens in city services, programs and politics. Somewhere along the way this value has been lost when it comes to our schools. Somewhere along the way parents have come to believe that either their opinions aren't valued or wanted. I want that to change. I think parent and public input are vital to a healthy city and school system and I value the diverse experience and opinions we have in our city. I will ensure that parents have a seat at the table and are treated with respect.
MARC MCGOVERN #1
CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
November 3, 2009
"I believe in applauding our accomplishments but acknowledging our shortcomings. It is only through asking questions, reviewing our practices and having high standards that we will improve our school district for the children of Cambridge."
-Marc McGovern
