schools

The Lincoln Squirrel will be introducing readers to candidates on the March 27 town election ballot, starting with the two contested races, and the PTO is hosting a candidate forum as well. Today we focus on the School Committee, which has four candidates competing for two seats. Following are their lightly edited responses to questions posed via email in alphabetical order by last name:

• Peter Buchthal
• Adam Hogue (incumbent)
• Jacob Lehrhoff
• Matina Madrick

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Peter Buchthal

What made you decide to run for a seat on the School Committee at this time?

I grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., which has a great public school. During the pandemic from September 2020 onward, I have been very grateful that our Lincoln School has been great and open for business with in-person schooling. My wife and I are parents to three wonderful children who are in kindergarten, second, and third grades.

Now that my children have gotten older and are all in the Lincoln School, I have become increasingly concerned with certain aspects of their education. I understand that all children learn at different speeds. We are lucky in that all three of our children enjoy math. However, the math curriculum appears to be focused on meeting and not exceeding the Common Core standards. If a student is ahead of the rest of the class, math can become really boring for that student as the class spends time on math skills that they may have already mastered. I am also not really sure what the math curriculum is, as none of my children have math textbooks or a published curriculum. Why are we not buying a textbook when it is so much cheaper than to do custom course development? Do we really think our curriculum will be better than vetted and tested than a curriculum from professional publishers?

Last spring’s student survey showed a high degree of lack of engagement and belonging that increased as the students progressed up through the higher grades. The administration hasn’t come up with causal reasons for these sentiments. Without identifying the reasons, no solution will likely be successful. On our most recent i-Ready testing, 38% of our children are one grade or more behind in their studies. So, whatever we are doing for all of our students isn’t working that well. I listened to the School Committee’s March 9 meeting where they went over the recent i-Ready scores. At no time did the administration present a defined action plan on what they were going to do to improve the scores of our students.

I believe the School Committee needs fresh eyes to help the school administration chart a better path forward as too many students are behind where they should be and not satisfied with their educational experience. I have befriended one of the parent coaches of our IMLEM [Intermediate Math League of Eastern Massachusetts] after-school math team for grades 4-8. He told me that Lincoln is unique compared with all of the other school districts they compete against. Our team is 100% coached by dedicated parents and all other competing math teams have coaches who are professional math teachers in their respective schools. I learned that early in the fall, he asked our superintendent to assign a math teacher to help the students. She queried our community of Lincoln and Hanscom teachers and reported back that no teacher wrote back who wished to coach (for money) the math team. Forty years ago in Scarsdale, I remember new teachers were expected to work extra jobs after school to help students outside the classroom and supervised activities like the yearbook, bridge club, chess club and math teams. I was dismayed that our school and school administration had a culture that didn’t encourage extra work from the staff to help the stronger kids.

I have talked to many parents of kids in grades 1–5 and it seems that a high percentage of them send their children to extra outside academic courses like Russian Math, Beast Academy, and Kumon. Since we spend more than 25% more per student than our neighboring towns, why shouldn’t we ask the school to provide a more challenging curriculum either during or after school, so that all families don’t have to waste their after-school time and gas driving to these programs? Shouldn’t the School Committee be focused on meeting the needs of all of the Lincoln students including the academically motivated ones?

Additionally, I have been troubled that the current school administration and School Committee seems intent on hiring a new middle school principal without giving our new superintendent Parry Graham time (he won’t be on the payroll until July 1, 2023) to figure out what skills are most needed in the position. Our new superintendent just wrote to Wayland parents last week: “Because we have a number of different positions open, and because I know I will not be in Wayland after June 30, I am very reluctant to make long-term leadership decisions for several of our central office positions. For that reason, several of these positions will be hired as interim, one-year positions.”

Our new middle school principal is exactly the kind of long-term hire that Graham should be allowed to take his time selecting. Graham is currently exceedingly busy in Wayland and we are asking him to make at best a rushed decision. The current principal search was also flawed as the initial search committee included only a Boston-based Lincoln parent and not a single non-affiliated Lincoln taxpayer parent. Lincoln taxpayer parents deserve a seat at the table and if I were elected to the School Committee, I would demand it.

Last year, I was made aware of one second-grade class that had a student who misbehaved and got violent from time to time. All of the students were taught the safe word “milkshake” so that when the teacher yelled “milkshake,” they all exited the classroom to go to a safe area. Students who misbehave and distract the learning of others should not be allowed in the classroom. Teachers spend a large amount of time on discipline/behavior issues instead of teaching. I understand that there have been at least four full school days of professional development specifically about classroom management and behavior issues. During those days, substitute teachers were left to try and teach the classrooms, which is most often not effective. As a School Committee member, I would ask for a public committee to publicize and enforce consistent behavior standards across the student body so that teachers get more time to teach and less time dealing with behavior issues. This public committee should publish metrics to show the effectiveness of the new enforced policies. We all should want students who want to learn in the classroom.

Parent surveys that were collected about 30 years ago were recently shared on LincolnTalk. The surveys showed Lincoln students were not well prepared for Lincoln-Sudbury high school. I believe we need to have an outside firm collect surveys to really understand what parents and taxpayers think on a variety of topics. Town meetings are not a great way to share sentiments, especially as voters can at times feel intimidated to not express themselves against the grain. Vocal groups can drown out other valued members of our community. Asking the School Committee or school administration to run a survey is like asking to the fox to guard the henhouse, so I would recommend using an outside firm or service to collect the survey data.

Why am I running for School Committee? Change happens from within, and I look forward to working with our new superintendent, other School Committee members and parents to identify our problems and come up with solutions to improve everyone’s satisfaction. I want a great public education for my children and I hope to help many others get one as well. I pledge to listen to everyone and am confident I will be successful.

What would you bring to the table in terms of specific professional and/or personal experiences?

As an engineer and entrepreneur, I feel qualified to dig in and ask hard questions to our administration to ensure all students excel in our school. I have experience in board meetings, finance, and solving complex hard problems. I have founded two successful software companies that involved creating solutions to meet specific customer needs. If elected, I feel I can help focus the administration on helping all of the students reach their potential.

Since this is a contested seat, why should Lincolnites vote for you in particular? What past history or personal/political positions make you better qualified than one or more of the other candidates?

I am good at researching complex items. Along with another parent, we have discovered that contrary to all written and oral communication from the school administration and town, we the Lincoln taxpayers subsidize the Hanscom school system at around $1,000,000 per year. Either through mismanagement or poor contract management, the Defense Department does not pay all of the expenses of the Hanscom school as advertised. We believe these extra expenses as are disguised as increased pension and benefit expenses for all Lincoln town employees. Hanscom teachers and support staff are actually all Lincoln town employees. For every personal dollar paid to a town employee, approximately 50 cents of that cost is paid by the town as additional pension and benefit expenses. Our peer towns (Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Carlisle, Dover, Sherborn and Concord) have pension and benefits expenses of around 20 to 35 cents per dollar of salaries. No one in the school administration or town administration has answered the question of why are our pension and benefits so much more expensive than our peer towns, and I believe our benefits are no better than our peer towns to justify the increased costs. Unless I am elected to the School Committee, this costly issue will get buried as the administration denies our requests for detailed records and contracts required to understand our accounting treatment. I pledge to be open and transparent with this information.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the School Committee over the next three years, and if elected, how do you plan to address it?

It is a toss-up between declining enrollment of Lincoln resident students and discipline/bullying problems. Unless we address our declining enrollment as parents choose to leave our school in greater numbers than our peer towns, our school may continue to shrink and become at a certain point unviable as an independent school. I would recommend that the School Committee survey parents to learn their areas of dissatisfaction so that we may address them.

As far as discipline/bullying problems, I would ask the School Committee to implement standards to ensure that discipline and misbehaving does not adversely impact the education of other students and publish metrics to show that our teachers are spending their time teaching and not being consumed with discipline problems.

Who are your three biggest heroes in American history and why?

Ed Koch — former mayor of New York City. He continually asked the public, “How am I doing?” He was always optimistic and frank. He served as mayor for 12 years. Imagine — in 1981 he was re-elected mayor of New York City under both the Democratic and Republican lines on the ballot. He had tremendous wit. One example was his no-parking sign that said, “Don’t even think of parking here.”

Steve Jobs — he was perhaps the best industrial designer of all time. The combined software and hardware products that he created are simply beautiful, elegant and easy to use by billions of people every day.

Chesley Sullenberger — pilot of Miracle on the Hudson aircraft ditching. When he lost both jet engines at a low altitude, his training and judgement allowed him to land his plane on the Hudson River. He never lost his cool and everyone survived.

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Adam Hogue

What made you decide to run again for a seat on the School Committee at this time?

I am a candidate for reelection and I decided to run again to work with the new superintendent we just hired and continuing my work with the teacher contract negotiations. I also want to continue to fight for a focus on data-driven decisions to help close our achievement gaps.

What would you bring to the table in terms of specific professional and/or personal experiences?

I bring my experience of having served on the Lincoln School Committee for the last five years, successfully negotiating several contracts with our unions and preparing budgets, as well as learning how our town government works. I also previously served on the board of the Lowell Community Charter School for four years.

Since this is a contested seat, why should Lincolnites vote for you in particular? What past history or personal/political positions make you better qualified than one or more of the other candidates?

During the pandemic, I stood up for students and fought to keep the schools open, successfully convincing my fellow members to vote to open the schools. I have the experience to navigate tough budget decisions and have built relationships in town that will help the schools over the next three years.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the School Committee over the next three years, and if elected, how do you plan to address it?

One of our biggest issues is going to be our budget. I plan to be creative and use my knowledge of the town budget to keep our schools well funded while avoiding an override.

Who are your three biggest heroes in American history and why?

Abraham Lincoln, because of the leadership he showed during one of the greatest crises this nation has ever faced. Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower, for his steadfast leadership during WWII and during his presidency. Fredrick Douglass, for being a leader in the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and civil rights.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?

As an officer in the Army National Guard, public service is a priority for me, and it would be a great honor to serve another term on the Lincoln School Committee.

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Jacob Lehrhoff

What made you decide to run for a seat on the School Committee at this time?

After a first career as an educator, I believed I had closed that chapter of my life and moved on. I maintained a passion for education but understood that it wasn’t the only career I wanted to pursue. When I taught, I had a palpable sense that I was giving back, that I was serving. Now working in tech, I love what I do, but I can’t claim to be serving or giving back in some tangible way. I came to realize that there are other ways to participate in and influence the schools, and that I can give back to my own community. Sitting with this realization, I considered running for School Committee last year, but my wife and I were expecting our second child and knew the coming months would be wild. Now that sleep is stable and life is functional, I’d like to step up and give back.

What would you bring to the table in terms of specific professional and/or personal experiences?

As a former educator, I’ve seen first-hand the transformative effect that a well-designed education can have on students and the coordinated effort required to ensure that education meets students’ needs. I taught English/language arts at the Gifford School in Weston for six years, three of them as department chair. That on-the-ground experience — designing curriculum, scaffolding lessons for students, hearing parents’ wishes and concerns — imbues me with empathy for every layer across the system. I know that Gifford is not a typical setting and many of the needs I supported are outside the expectations of a public school, but the learning remains: every student is unique, every family has their own perspective, and everyone deserves compassion and curiosity. Lincoln’s school budget may read as a series of line items, but there are stories behind those investments, and the decisions we make with our budget affects lives.

My career has changed dramatically since my years in education. I currently lead the data science and user research organization at Spotify, developing personalized listening experiences. In my seven years at Spotify, I’ve honed both my research and collaborative skills. I teach my team that the goal isn’t only to create knowledge, it’s to drive action. We simultaneously hone our craft — drafting research questions and methodology, executing research — and hone our storytelling, collaborative, and influencing skills. We form the narrative of our insights around our understanding of stakeholders’ interests and perspectives to influence decision-making. It’s these skills that will help me support thoughtful policy decisions.

Since this is a contested seat, why should Lincolnites vote for you in particular? What past history or personal/political positions make you better qualified than one or more of the other candidates?

What I want voters to know is that the most critical tool I would bring to and employ on the School Committee isn’t any particular facility with data: it’s empathy. Progress requires collaboration; collaboration depends on relationships, and relationships take time and curiosity to build. When facing challenges, different perspectives are valid, problems have multiple sides, and solutions aren’t singular. Through listening, I hope to influence positive decisions.

I hear many topics of interest: bullying, student engagement, challenging high achievers. I hope to match that interest from the town with an understanding of what decisions the administration and School Committee have made to date, why, what’s next in the plan, and what we aren’t focusing on if we further prioritize these topics.

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the School Committee over the next three years, and if elected, how do you plan to address it?

The Lincoln Public Schools are embarking on a lot of change. We are about to have a new superintendent and a new principal. While not something that will take three years, the most important issue is building relationships with the changing administration, ensuring the administration is building relationships within the schools to diagnose opportunities and drive positive change, and ensuring Lincoln is connected to all of it. Yes there are many topics that deserve attention — continuing our investment in antiracism, inclusion, diversity, and equity; further realizing the “portrait of a learner” in our schools; ensuring student engagement is high; identifying opportunities to minimize bullying, etc. — but no progress will be made on any of these topics without investment in those new relationships. One opportunity to create those connections would be to bring back regularly scheduled coffee events with School Committee members to ensure that people feel heard and connections can be made.

Who are your three biggest heroes in American history and why?

After sitting with this question for some time, I’ve found that my most authentic answer is to celebrate groups that deserve attention rather than elevate specific individuals. I thought about the working poor, fighting to provide for their families in a system that isn’t necessarily designed for their success. I thought about union organizers, so quickly demonized by organizations with deep pockets. I thought about people who manage to speak out against wrongs committed upon them by people of power and the many more who have no platform or agency to speak out. And then I realized I am most moved by the perseverance against inequity and the will to cause change for the good.

I feel fortunate to have received a good public school education just two towns away in Natick, to have had many opportunities in front of me throughout my life — to have never felt that I wouldn’t be given a fair shot. And I deeply admire those who see that many don’t have those same luxuries and choose to fight for equity.

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Matina Madrick

What made you decide to run for a seat on the School Committee at this time?

We moved to Lincoln in the summer of 2020 with our three children, who attended the Lincoln Public and Lincoln-Sudbury at that time. We have been very happy in Lincoln and I am excited to be able to serve the community.

I have had a longstanding interest in education policy as I earned my master’s degree in public policy and economics from Princeton University. I have professional experience in education finance and education consulting. I have also been a volunteer in many different schools and extracurricular activities. I strongly believe in the mission of public schools and I have a vested interest in maintaining and improving education in Lincoln. My children are at ages where I am able to make a more substantial commitment to volunteer work outside of the home and I would be thrilled with the opportunity to serve the community on the School Committee.

What would you bring to the table in terms of specific professional and/or personal experiences?

Before having a family, I earned a master’s degree in policy and economics from Princeton University. After graduating, I worked at the New York Independent Budget Office analyzing the New York City education budget. This experience provided me with an introduction to education finance and introduced me to the importance of municipal budgets in the implementation of policy. I also worked on other education issues such as class size, graduation rates, and outcomes. Once I started a family, I had a number of opportunities to work part-time in education consulting, grant writing, analyzing compensation plans, and helping to build recruiting plans for education administrators.

Personally, my children have attended schools in three different public school districts and I have volunteered in all of these districts. I have seen many different programs and services that work both better and worse than in Lincoln and I am eager to share that perspective.

Since this is a contested seat, why should Lincolnites vote for you in particular? What past history or personal/political positions make you better qualified than one or more of the other candidates?

My professional experience in education finance and policy as well as my experience as a parent in several different school districts have provided me with some excellent and different perspectives on the Lincoln Public Schools. Additionally, two of my children are now high schoolers and I can speak to the experience of their preparedness for high school and what worked and did not work in their elementary and middle school experiences.

My commitment to my kids’ education through volunteering in the schools and extracurricular activities for my kids is also a strong factor in my candidacy. I have been an active volunteer for the schools as a class parent, classroom assistant, and volunteer for special programs, and here in Lincoln I am a member of SEPAC [Special Education Parent Advisory Council] and the PTO enrichment rep for my youngest son’s grade. I have also been a board member for the parent organization of my daughter’s gymnastics team for five years (a position I resigned from as of this coming June).

What do you think is the biggest issue facing the School Committee over the next three years, and if elected, how do you plan to address it?

As the pandemic slows, there are increased pressures on teachers due to social/emotional issues and increased learning gaps, and many educators are leaving the profession due to burnout. Teachers are the most important factor driving student learning and success, and we need to address teacher retention and morale. We also must ensure we are attracting talented teachers and focus on ways to recruit and retain diversity in our workforce that mirrors our student body. There is no simple fix to these issues, but the School Committee can ensure that teacher salaries are in line with inflation while remaining aware of our budget constraints. Additionally, the School Committee can support the schools’ ability to provide professional development for all educators.

Who are your three biggest heroes in American history and why?

Recently, because of his declining health, Jimmy Carter has been in the news a lot, and it has reminded me how much I admire his work ethic and devotion to peace, housing, and other issues post his presidency. While he could have participated in more self-aggrandizing pursuits, he chose service and was extremely effective in those causes.

I grew up dancing in New York City and some of my biggest personal heroes reflect this background. In my early teenage years, I began to attend my first Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey performances and take classes at these companies. Both are two lions of the modern dance world and I admired the genius in creating immortal, beautiful choreography and techniques outside of the accepted and institutionalized forms of dance. Furthermore, Martha Graham, at a time when women were not accepted as leaders in dance, broke boundaries by founding her own dance company and choreographing outside the mainstream. Similarly, Alvin Ailey as a gay Black man broke boundaries by not only establishing a dance company but establishing a school of dance that welcomed urban, mostly Black children to learn classical and other dance techniques while other dance schools remained both traditional and segregated.

As I am running for School Committee, I feel compelled to mention an educator I admire, Diane Ravitch. Ravitch is a prolific author and tireless supporter of public schools. I was first introduced to her when I read her book The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools while working in education finance for the City of New York. Her dedication to her cause and interests and overwhelming wealth of knowledge and energy are more than admirable.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?

When I started my family, I made the decision to make my children my priority, but I have always tried to maintain professional presence outside the home either through work or volunteering. Professionally, I have taken part-time jobs working for several education consulting firms, and I also worked part-time at Harvard Business School as a researcher. I also worked part-time in finance for a biotech startup which my husband founded.

Currently, I teach fitness in Waltham at Btone Fitness two mornings a week. I have volunteered in my children’s schools in many different roles in different districts since my oldest entered kindergarten. One of my most rewarding volunteer experiences has been as a board member for the parent organization attached to my daughter’s gymnastics team. This position in particular has taken many hours. I have learned a lot about gymnastics competition, made a lot of friends and it has been extremely rewarding.