Many people in the community have been asking why Heather isn’t seeking another term on the school committee. I don’t know Heather personally and was unable to answer their questions. Reaching out to Heather in an email I asked her why, this was her response.
Hi Jenn,
I have been so honored to have been twice elected to serve on the school committee and I very much appreciate the tremendous support I have received over the past six years. The past two terms have encompassed many changes to the district. We have seen dramatic changes to our administrative staff, an entirely new slate of principals, new finance director, new student support services director and new superintendent. We have updated and expanded technology, overhauled our facilities to reduce energy usage, negotiated significant changes to our contracts and improved the budgeting process with the municipalities. We have evaluated our curriculum and programming invested in new special education programming and automated our food services purchasing program. We have developed a strong working relationship with our professional association of school committees that has allowed us to examine our practices, evaluate and update our policies, advocate for funding and develop a new strategic plan. Each of these initiatives required a significant investment of time and attention on the part of school committee members. I am tremendously proud of all of the significant achievements of the school committee over the past six years, especially so, because of the unique challenges we faced as a result of the great recession. Communicating the impact of the recession and the resulting shortages in funding occupied much of the committees time and energy for several years. I am extremely proud of the support of the Upton community during this difficult period and I am happy that we appear to be headed toward better days. When I joined the committee I saw great potential in our district and I believe the potential for even greater achievements still exists.
I took my role on the school committee quite seriously and spent numerous hours attending meetings and workshops, communicating with parents and teachers, researching education trends and education financing issues and advocating for our schools. I was active with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools and served on the MASC Advocacy Committee. I so appreciate having had the opportunity to work with a group of strong, smart, hardworking individuals within the school committee, town finance committees, boards of selectmen, our local legislators and the MASC community. Serving in public office requires a significant investment of time and energy. Having fully immersed myself in the MURSD committee for six years, I find I now need to step back, and turn my attention to career and family obligations. The experiences I’ve had on the committee, while tremendously challenging at times, have enriched my life and for that I am very grateful to the entire Upton community.
Please continue to give the MURSD school committee, our teachers, principals, support staff and superintendent Maruszczak your full support.
UPTON DAILY 