I am a white, American Jew, born in the United States to an immigrant mother and American father. My mother and her family escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 and entered the United States as refugees. My father's parents fled to the United States from eastern Europe after World War I. Growing up in this family dynamic deeply influenced me in terms of recognizing how hate, prejudice, and persecution can impact one's life. Further, my family spent my middle and high school years in a small Pennsylvania town where respect and dignity for all were demonstrated through communal and institutional organizations on a regular basis. During my 35-year career at Verizon Communications, I had the opportunity, over many summers, to mentor minority students in my research laboratory through a joint program with the United Negro College Fund.

Over a lifetime of both professional and volunteer work, I have treated every single person with dignity and respect. As a team leader in Verizon with a diverse and multinational staffed team, I treated every member with dignity and respect. As a School Committee member, I will bring the same manner of interaction with School Administration, Faculty, staff, students, parents and caregivers, and community members.

This question was brought to me by a myriad of constituents across Brookline during this campaign. My answer has been consistent: we must work with every student early-on through a coordinated and structured process of observation, assessment, intervention, and review so that student skills and knowledge grow as the students develop. Collaboration, communication, and documentation are essential. Teachers, specialists, department heads, principals, and parents and caregivers are the key players in this process. It is critical that we collect scientifically meaningful data points across grade levels and schools that enable us to determine the effectiveness of our programs and to enable us to generate statistically useful conclusions. Finally, we must continue to offer the highest quality and challenging courses for strong students.

The School Committee, in collaboration with School leadership and faculty along with Human Resources, might establish direct lines of communication with local and regional schools of education. Opportunities for undergraduate and/or graduate students of color to perform their practicums, placements, and student teaching placements should be offered within PSB. Faculty and administrators should seek to further improve the environment surrounding teachers of color to improve retention. Principals and department heads need to examine what the root causes are of dissatisfaction and discomfort among minority teachers and staff. School Committee members might suggest ways in which school leadership can model and spearhead more opportunities for inclusivity and team building.

I am trained as a scientist and worked in corporate technology for many decades. Ensuring that our corporate goals were met within the constraints of project budgets was a critical and important component of my professional career. It is imperative that the School Committee have full access to every line item within the Budget for review and analysis. Further, the Committee should have sufficient time to carefully assess how each budget item addresses the specific needs of the schools and its students and how to measure the effectiveness of each investment (e.g., student outcomes or faculty satisfaction). The Committee must be reviewing the budget on a regular basis to observe how actual expenses track with projected cost. Hopefully, with an approach that embodies a philosophy of "catch them before they fall", we can prevent students experiencing such acute disparities in achievement.

I would begin to address these issues that affect school culture and student safety by meeting with the Office of Educational Equity to ensure that the relevant policies and procedures are in place to document and respond to incidents of these types. The weak response of PSB to the events of October 7, 2023, in Israel and the tragic aftermath of that attack within the region has been noted by large numbers of parents and local residents. To this day, no policy to address hate speech has been enacted by the School Committee. Even in the absence of a policy, School leadership and faculty and staff need to avail themselves of existing, vetted resources and training opportunities aimed at combatting these prejudices within K-12 school systems.