AMHERST – As the public schools continue to go through a period of change, two parents and a community activist are seeking seats on the Amherst School Committee. Anastasia Ordonez, Vincent O’Connor and Laura Kent are vying for two, three-year positions Tuesday.
Actively listening to parents, engaging in dialogue with the community and objectively participating with school leaders to improve Amherst schools are what Laura Kent says she can bring to the School Committee.
“I come from a really positive, collaborative place that tries to find objective balance,” said Kent, who serves on the school’s Special Education Advisory Council. “I believe firmly in the importance of family engagement and to support families in the school system.”
A full-time student at the University of Massachusetts pursuing a bachelor’s degree in public health, and a trained special education advocate, Kent, 30, of 50 Aubinwood Road, said she sees the potential Wildwood School expansion project as a positive.
She doesn’t have a position on the possible K-12 regionalization, but wants to make sure she talks to school and town officials in all communities to understand the issue.
Kent said the School Committee needs to look at ways to enrich the experience of gifted learners, as well as those children who struggle and are part of marginalized populations.
The School Committee can help to find more resources and create policies that have more programming choices within the schools, reducing the chances that parents and guardians will seek alternative education. Kent is married to Skip and has two children, Ivy, 6, at Wildwood, and Conor, 5, who will be at the same school in the fall.
What he sees as the need for a candidate who will stand up to the superintendent has prompted Vincent O’Connor to run for the second time for a seat on the School Committee.
“I’m especially concerned that we seem to have an attitude that you can’t disagree with the recommendations of the superintendent or our town manager without implying you’re disloyal or that you don’t trust their leadership,” said O’Connor, who ran unsuccessfully in 2010.
O’Connor, 74, of 175 Summer St. and a community organizer, said he is troubled that a large elementary school may be built at the Wildwood site, to replace both Wildwood and Fort River school.
Regionalizing the K-12 system with the neighboring towns would not be logical, O’Connor said, as there is no evidence that it will bring increased transportation and special education money to the district. He hopes to see schools have a more diverse teaching staff, and offers the idea of hiring bilingual teachers, even for teaching subjects like math and science.
O’Connor said he appreciates the competition faced by Amherst schools with charter schools and other public schools, arguing, though, that it is not accurate that the school district is failing. But he said school officials need to acknowledge the mistake more than a decade ago when they rejected the chance to incorporate Chinese language immersion into the curriculum.
O’Connor said he has helped numerous families in a private capacity, including children with both special education needs and English language learners.
Knowledge about the need for early literacy and the health effects from adverse childhood experiences, and growing up as a Latina woman raised by a single, Spanish-speaking mother, is prompting Anastasia Ordonez to run for elective office for the first time.
“I’d like to improve communication between the community and the school administration, and help make sure that our parents and town residents understand the vision for our public schools,” Ordonez said. “It is especially important for our diverse community to believe they are being engaged, and that their experiences matter.”
Ordonez, 40, of 1 Dwight Circle, who works as a communications consultant for nonprofit organizations and has extensive background in public relations and public education campaigns, said the decision to create a new school the Wildwood School site is a necessity.
She has no opinions yet on whether regionalizing the school system from K-12 would be a benefit or a detriment. The School Committee, Ordonez said, should strive to find ways to improve education for children of all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic classes. Ordonez, who has a bachelor’s degree in English literature and political science and a master’s degree in women’s studies is married to Stefan Antonowicz and has two sons, ages 6 and 4, at Fort River.
