 ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help. Welcome to Arlington's Candidate's Night for Town Elections on Saturday, April 6th, 2024. Candidate's Night is jointly sponsored by Envision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Tonight's program is being broadcast live by Arlington Community Media, ACMI. And so we would like to thank ACMI's Executive Director, Norm MacLeod, Operations Manager, Jeff Monroe, Government Access Coordinator, Sean Keane, and the rest of the staff and volunteers of ACMI for broadcasting tonight's event. It will also be rebroadcast on ACMI's government channels, Comcast Channel 22, RCN Channel 15, RCN's High Definition Channel 614, Verizon Channel 26, and ACMI's Facebook page and YouTube channel. You can get it anywhere. For those watching later, it's now 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27th, 2024, and this forum is being presented live in Arlington Town Hall. I'm Patty Muldoon, and I'm with the League of Women Voters of Arlington, and it is my pleasure to introduce Candidate's Night, which presents our candidates for local office. And as you know, Candidate's Night is a nonpartisan service providing information to our voters. Membership in the League of Women Voters is open to people of all genders. Throughout our 104-year history, the League has built a nationally respected reputation for providing candidate forums and debates for the benefit of voters. And for supporting informed participation and understanding of government and major policy issues. Based on grassroots membership input, the League also seeks to influence public policy through education and advocacy. The League of Women Voters takes action on specific issues that we have studied, but we never support or oppose candidates. If you are interested in building civic participation with the League, please sign up at our website, lwva.com. Tonight's program will include statements from candidates and a question and answer period. Residents of Arlington have submitted questions in advance of this evening. The questions were reviewed by a committee of League members and Envision Arlington members to represent the issues of the concern to the audience. The moderator will present questions to the candidates. In addition to voting for candidates for office this year, this year's ballot has one local ballot question, which is, shall the town vote to have its elected town clerk become an appointed town clerk of the town? I invite you to please go to lwva.com to see the League's information and position on this longstanding issue for the town, lwva.com. And I would like to remind folks here to please turn off your cell phones and please hold your applause until the end of the candidates' presentations for each office. And now I'd like to introduce our regular guest moderator from the League of Women Voters of Lexington, Margaret Copey. Margaret. Thank you, Patty. And thank you for inviting me back again. I love coming here. Good evening. Thank you for attending our watching. First, I'd like to outline the procedure and rules for the evening. The candidates for town offices will appear in this order this evening, assessor, select board, and school committee. The candidate for housing authority board of directors, Gar E. Tulanian, is not in attendance tonight. Each candidate will make an introductory statement with two minutes allowed. The candidates will speak in the order in which they appear on the ballot. After the candidates have finished their statements, we will have questions and answers. As mentioned before, questions have been submitted in advance. All candidates will have the opportunity to answer each question for their office. The candidates with second placement on the ballot will be the first to answer the first question, and we will continue to rotate through the ballot order for each question. Each candidate will have one minute to answer the question. After the questions and answers, each candidate may make a two-minute closing statement. The candidates will speak in reverse ballot order for their closing statements. To ensure fairness, each candidate will have a time warning for the league timers in the front row, and would you please hold up your cards so that I can see them and the candidates can see them and people in the audience can see them so we know where you are? When the time is up, a red card will be, the yellow card will come up with 20 seconds to go, the red card for stop. We ask the co-operation of all candidates in following these rules so that everyone will have a fair chance. As a reminder, because this program is carried live and will be rebroadcast, we ask the candidates to speak clearly into the microphones to be heard. Due to the allocated cable TV broadcast time, we will conclude the program at 9.30 p.m. and there will be no intermission. So with that, we will now start in with the first candidate for assessor. There is one seat open for a three-year term. The candidate is Gordon A. Jamison Jr. The Board of Assessors is composed of three members. The mission of the Board of Assessors is to assess all property in the town of Ellington in a fair, equitable and consistent manner in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the requirements and guidelines of the Department of Revenue. The Board of Assessors holds hearings with residents on questions of property valuations, personal property, motor vehicle excise taxes and exemptions for aged or handicapped residents and veterans. When the inspector of buildings grants a permit for new property additions or alterations, the assessors then make an individual inspection to determine the assessment. At the close of town meeting, the assessors determine the tax rate subject to approval by the state tax commissioner. So with that introduction, we go to Mr. Jamison and we'll hear his opening statement. Mr. Jamison has kindly asked for permission to go a little bit over on his opening statement, but he's gonna shorten his closing statement. So he'll stay within the allotted time. Mr. Jamison. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Gordon Jamison and currently I am the chair of the Board of Assessors. I come before you tonight to ask for your vote on April 6th for my election to a full three-year term on the Board. I have been a homeowner and resident of Ellington for over 20 years and among several other past or present town volunteer activities, I am currently in my sixth term as member of our representative town meeting. I am a graduate of Middlebury College and I received my doctorate from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Cincinnati. When I came before you two years ago, I promised, if elected, to work to make the assessor's office and its website more user-friendly and to enact procedures that enhance the internal review of assessment data to help ensure the accuracy of each property owner's assessment. Working together with the Director of Assessments, Dana Mann, and fellow board members, Bill Zageta and Mary Wynne Stanley O'Connor, a great team, by the way, I am pleased to report that several of those objectives have been achieved and I am especially proud to have spearheaded the implementation of a cyclical assessing process where properties will be reinspected for the purpose of assessing their fair market value on an ongoing basis versus every 10 years as it has been done previously. It is my and the board's hope that not only will this flatten the budgetary requirements of this process, but more importantly that it will result in the more timely recognition of new growth, an important factor in growing our tax base. Beyond that, I hope to further enhance the existing QAQ procedures within the assessor's office so that they can take full advantage of the town's GIS system and depend upon the other board's members' concurrence to further update our website materials to streamline residents' use of the site and their overall understanding of the assessment process. These additional changes will help to ensure that each of us can pay our property taxes confident they are based upon a fair and accurate assessment of value. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jameson. First question. If a homeowner believes their property was overvalued, what is the mechanism for filing for a tax abatement and how can the homeowner increase their chances for receiving one? You have one minute. Okay, so if a homeowner feels that their assessed value is higher than what they believe it is, a fair market value, they can file for an abatement. They need to do that by, I believe, February, they need to do that within a prescribed period of time after the tax bills of a member. I believe it's February 1st, if I recall correctly. The best thing you can do when filing an abatement is make sure that you completely fill out the form. The most often reasons for not getting an abatement are one, failure to allow the assessor and his staff to come in and look at your property, and two, failing to file accurate comps. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next question now. What is the difference between a tax deferral and a tax exemption? How does a homeowner qualify for each? Okay, a tax exemption is one of the several different categories where you can get exempt from a certain amount of taxes, depending upon a status, such as a veteran and other related type categories that are all outlined on the assessor website. The deferment is a different process. Based upon income restrictions, you can actually fully defer part or all, all a part of your tax bill until the time that the property changes hands or there's another sales event upon which the taxes would be due. There is an interest rate that is due on those deferred taxes, but for those people who are really strapped, it's something we always suggest as a way to help defer their taxes. I'm gonna ask my own question here. Do you get many requests for deferrals or exemptions? The exemptions are broadly taken care of by the staff in the office because they're very straightforward. Okay. We only, the board really only gets involved if there's an appeal, if it wasn't granted. Under deferrals, we get, some of those are, we look at those when we have to sign papers or those. So we might get a half dozen tops every year. Thank you. Okay, next question. Are municipalities limited in how much they can increase an individual's taxes under proposition two and a half? So let's back up one step. Prop two and a half allows the town to increase the base levy by two and a half percent every year plus new growth, and then any debt exemptions are added on top of that and distributed based upon your part of the pie. Now, if you had a cape and suddenly you made it into a 3,000 square foot house, the increase in your taxes over time would be substantial because of the increased square footage. To be more directly, the answer to the question is, it's always based, your value is, your taxes are always based upon your portion of the pie. So you take the whole tax levy to be raised and you take the percentage of the value that your house is of the total valuation of properties in town. Thank you. It's a difficult question. I could tell. But if you do a large expansive addition, your taxes will go up proportionately. Right, I think the question is, the municipalities limited in how much, not whether an individual's taxes would go up or not. It's kind of, I interpreted that question. Technically not, but in practice, it can only go up based upon overall values. Yes, thank you. Okay, next question. The board of assessors submitted article 21 of the town warrant, seeking to amend the senior property tax exemption. Please explain why you support this article. Well, actually the board has discussed this article in great detail both internally and also with the town manager and the director of finance. We are not going to be moving forward on that article. We found a different ways to fund that substantial amount of circuit breaker dollars that we anticipate having to do through a different mechanism. Thank you. It's now time for your closing statement. You have two minutes, minus 15 seconds. Minus probably a lot more than that. So I'd like to thank Division Arlington and League of Women Voters for putting together this forum. Act me for taking care of the video work and clerk Brazil and our staff for helping to arrange the elections. And so in closing, I present myself as an experienced, knowledgeable, and capable candidate for the board of assessors. And I respectfully ask for your vote on April 6th. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Jamison. Would the candidates for select board please come forward? You will now hear from the candidates for select board. There are two seats open each for a three-year term. There are two candidates, Eric V. Helmuth and John V. Hurd. The five members of the select board serve three-year overlapping terms. They act as the town's executive branch to formulate town policy, ensure compliance with state laws, and administer many town meeting decisions. The board appoints the town manager to be the professional manager of town services and departments except for the schools. The select board members also serve as the board of public works and the board of survey, compile the warrant, grant licenses and permits, appoint election officers, review budgets and settle claims against the town. The members announce all elections, attend hearings and other town functions and deal with traffic and safety matters. We will now hear an opening statement from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first candidate is Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Helmuth, you have two minutes. Thank you very much. I want to express my thanks to the sponsor of this event, everybody watching at home or online and to my colleague, Mr. Hurd, for his service and being willing to run for another term on the board. I'm Eric Helmuth and it is my privilege to serve as the current chair of the Arlington Select Board. Over the past three years, the select board was fortunate to collaborate with our amazing town employees and our volunteer civic leaders to ensure that Arlington remains a welcoming, well-run town that takes care of its people. The town allocated millions of dollars in federal COVID relief funds to invest in public health, infrastructure and to take care of our residents and local businesses. We furthered our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion with the townwide equity audit and many other initiatives. Arlington remained a statewide environmental and climate leader with an expanding raft of programs and policies to increase the adoption of clean energy, sustainable transportation, plastics reduction and to promote conservation. We continued to invest in affordable housing and to thoughtfully respond as a community to the critical regional need to add more housing capacity in the right places. We invested in our people. The select board hired a new town manager and we prioritized the recruitment and the retention of hardworking employees who care about our community. The town has worked hard to maintain a high level of services for residents while keeping the select board's financial promises to the taxpayers. I'm grateful for the voters trust expressed by responding last year to the select board's request for an operating override so that we can make crucial investments in our schools and maintain quality town services in the face of our constant structural deficit. The next three years will require to continue hardworking cooperation to address many of the same priorities and challenges. And I look forward to discussing some of them here tonight. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Hurd, you have two minutes for opening statement. Thank you. Good evening. My name's John Hurd. I'm currently the vice chair of the Arlington Select Board. I have to, I want to first thank my wife and kids, my wife Christine and my son Wesley and my son Dylan for being here. And for all the sacrifices that they give, it's not hard being the family of a person that goes to work all day, goes to practice and then says I'm going out to a meeting for four hours. So I want to thank them for all their support. That wasn't in the first draft I got in trouble. So luckily I had them proofread it. I'm happy to be here tonight to get the opportunity to participate in this forum. I want to thank the legal women voters in Envision Arlington for sponsoring the forum here tonight and for the immense work that they do all year. Arlington is a town that relies on its many, many volunteers working on town committees and commissions to function so well, most of whom get very little recognition for the work they do. So I do want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in town that participates in local government in any way. You are the reason that this town is so successful year after year. I would also like to thank my opponent, Eric Helmuth, for running a relatively clean campaign thus far. We'll see what shenanigans he has up his sleeve in the last week. But I have really truly enjoyed working with Eric this term. He always brings insightful commentary to our meetings and provides a unique perspective to the board. It has been a privilege and honor to serve on the select board over the past six years. During that time, we as a town have had a number of significant accomplishments, including two successful override campaigns and a successful campaign to build a high school suitable for Arlington students for the next 100 years. We navigated unprecedented times during the pandemic and we came out stronger on the backside. And we continue to enact forward-thinking policies to combat racial inequity, to combat our regional housing crisis and to combat climate change, while also still providing the top tier services that residents of Arlington have come to know and expect. I have been proud to call Arlington my home for almost 40 years and I cannot imagine raising my boys anywhere else. Thank you again, and I look forward to a great discussion tonight. Thank you, Mr. Heard. You can duck me a few seconds on the closing. Yeah, I was keeping track. Okay, first question, and we will start with Mr. Heard for this. What specific measures should be taken to counter increasing instances of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attitudes within our community? You have one minute. I think to have, it all starts with our children and we have an amazing school system that my two boys are a part of where the school department is very, very centered on inclusiveness. And I think as a town, I think we've been very proud. And just like anywhere, there's been instances of hate in Arlington, but the way that we respond as a town and the way that residents come together from all aspects of the world in all different viewpoints is really heartening any time that happens. So I think it's just we have conversations. You have open and honest conversations about our differences and that leads to more understanding. And I think this town always handles those instances very well. Thank you. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you very much. I couldn't agree more with what my opponent just said. I think in addition to that, I would say that the town has a responsibility from a leader's point of view to make it very clear to our employees and to everybody else who is engaged that Arlington is a town where everyone is welcome. And we expect that those are interacting with the government, interacting with our services feel welcome, completely welcome, feel heard and understood. And I think those opportunities to be listened to are really important, but also just a sense that we take it seriously. We take hate seriously. We have no tolerance for it. We will respond and we will stand up for everyone who calls Arlington home. Thank you. The next question and we'll be starting with Mr. Helmuth on this one. Town meeting passed transit friendly zoning that exceeds the requirements of the MBTA communities act while MBTA service in Arlington continues to deteriorate. What can the select word do to reverse the deterioration of the MBTA service and to advocate on behalf of transit riders in Arlington? Mr. Helmuth. I think it is fair to make a connection between our housing policy and that is increasingly transit focused which is a priority I support. And linking that with the quality of service we get from the MBTA. I think the select board has been and will continue to be a loud voice letting our state legislative delegation know and the MBTA directly know that we are putting our money where our mouth is and we're building housing where transit is and we need that to be available to make that work. So I think that our partnership with the legislative delegation is really, really important. We need to be leaders and encourage the community to make its voice heard about that as well because in the long term, that has to work. Our housing policy has to work and we have to have a reliable safe transit system to support the changes that we're trying to make. Thank you. Mr. Herd, would you like for me to repeat the question? Nope. I think just continue to work with our state delegation and those that work for them to continue to advocate for the town of Alleyton. We've, in my time on the board, we've had a number of discussions with representatives of the MBTA and at times we've wrote letters on behalf of the select board expressing concerns that we get from residents regarding MBTA service. We, I think we have a great relationship, a great working relationship with the MBTA because of the strides that Arlington has done to make ourselves a very MBTA friendly community. I think there's more work to be done, but to be continuing those discussions and it's certainly an asset in town that many town residents rely on. So it has been top of mind for the select board, particularly in the last three years. Thank you. Next question, we'll be starting with Mr. Herd. Mass General Law chapter 40B allows for development of housing units for low income residents while not adhering to zoning bylaws. Will the select board move to certify whether or not Arlington has reached the 1.5% land area affordability requirement that would provide immunity to chapter 40B? Mr. Herd. Well, I know it's been the position of the town in the select board for many years that we have reached the safe harvest status. So I certainly believe that the Arlington would make that, would move in that direction. But I mean, there's many great 40B projects that have been proposed over the past couple of years in Arlington, in other areas outside of the MuGar wetlands that are really beneficial to the town. So, you know, I think 40B is a, in general, very helpful for promoting our goals of creating more housing and housing equity. But as far as safe harbor status, I think we're there. Thank you. Mr. Helmuth. Yeah, I agree. I think that the town made its best effort to reach that certification and the state didn't agree with this. And I also agree that 40B can be a useful tool for projects to support more affordable housing. I think the one limitation of 40B, in addition to it sometimes complying the town to do projects like the MuGar property that I think are not appropriate, is that it's really hard for affordable housing developers to be able to predict the success and to plan accordingly. And I'm actually interested in seeing if Arlington would be interested in developing a tool like an affordable housing overlay zoning district that would help with similar kinds of flexibility for affordable housing developments and have the benefit of making it a lot easier for developers and non-profit or otherwise to know what they're getting into and to be able to plan. And ultimately, tools like that is have been the case in Cambridge, for instance, can actually increase the rate of affordable housing development in a way that still meets the kinds of design guidelines that we want for our business areas. Thank you. The next question, again, we'll begin with Mr. Helmuth. What is the budget for significant maintenance and renovation of the approximately 40 town-owned buildings? For example, the town hall roof and clock tower have significant structural issues. How are these issues being addressed? Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. I do not know the budget for that particular line item. I'd be happy to look it up and ask the town manager to do that. The particular need of town halls, clock tower, the cupola and the roof that's over the lion's hearing room is a really important and expensive problem. We are considering strongly using CPA funds in the upcoming years to address that and even potentially looking at bonding against CPA for such an important and long-term project that for a need that there may be no other way to pay for it. Right now there's temporary repairs in place to keep the building and occupants and equipment safe but we'd like to be able to get those spaces back. And so we are actively looking at that and the town manager is one of his highest priorities is figuring out the right funding formula to restore the building because this town hall is an incredibly historic and vital community resource that we do need to keep it in good shape. Thank you. Mr. Hurd. Yes. I don't even know the specific budget but we do have 5% of our budget a year goes to capital projects of various means and we just last night had our presentation for the upcoming Community Preservation Act awards and I would just say that since its inception the Community Preservation Act has been a huge success in helping us tackle some of these projects that aren't always top of mind in town such as historic renovations and historic restorations among many, many other great causes. So I just wanna give a shout out for those who work on the Community Preservation, the CPA Committee and it's really been a wild success and we could certainly look at the CPA funds to cover some of these deficiencies in town buildings. Thank you. Next question starting with Mr. Hurd. Massachusetts is currently undergoing a housing affordability crisis. Do you support the construction of additional housing in Arlington through the loosening of regulations and the reduction of review processes? Mr. Hurd. Absolutely. I think this is an issue that is very important to our only two residents and over the past few years our only two residents have been very, very vocal about the need to create new housing units. We are land strapped. We don't have a lot of additional land that we can go and build huge developments. So we have to be creative within our current zoning bylaws and within our current housing stock to try to create, to figure out new ways to create new units. And so I would support efforts to do that. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Helmuth. I agree. We need to continue to creatively find ways to streamline the process in a way that still allows the community to have a reasonable degree of control over what gets built. But I think that actually doing that is much better than not doing that because we hear a lot from people that, well, I don't like the teardowns in the McMansions. Well, that's what's allowed now. And so if we're not providing the economic opportunity to build the housing in different ways, in denser ways, in ways that create neighborhoods, in ways that create that clientele for the cafes that we want more of, then we're not gonna get them. And I think that it is very entirely possible to do this in a way that puts housing in places where it makes sense and creates more neighbors, more diversity in town, economic diversity and otherwise, that ultimately makes us a healthier place. And I think it's entirely fair and appropriate to look at how continuing to adjust our zoning can give us the tools to further that. Thank you. Next question, starting with Mr. Helmuth. With the pressure of increased development for housing and recreation, we are losing many mature trees. How can you protect Arlington's tree canopy and will you make this a priority, Mr. Helmuth? Thank you very much. I think the select board does make this a priority as a matter of policy. We are very lucky to have the tree committee as an advisory body to the select board. We have a robust policy of tree hearings that are required when healthy trees are removed for projects. Occasionally, particularly unhealthy trees do need to be taken down. That's just a fact of life in order to achieve some projects. But we always have a replanting policy that we make sure that those are made up for. And I think that the tree canopy, not only from a carbon sequestration point of view, but just from a heat island effects perspective is really important even in a suburban environment like Arlington. So I will continue making that a priority as in the select board's role to set those policies for the town. Thank you, Mr. Hurd. Thank you. Yes, as during my turn on the board, protection of the tree canopy has always been a really important issue for the select board. A lot of the housing stock that we're talking about creating is within the existing housing stock that we have or new housing stock rather. So it's a bad thing that we don't have open land to develop, but it certainly means that we're not going out and cutting down trees to create that new housing stock. But we rely on our tree committee. We have an amazing tree warden who is very protective of our tree canopy. And as a town residents have told us and we're elected officials and residents have told us that they want us to be very tight on allowing trees to be cut down. And there's many instances where we renovate areas around town and business districts where we keep existing trees for that reason. And it's certainly a priority for me and the whole board. Thank you. This will be the last question before we go to closing statements and we will be starting with Mr. Hurd. Given the frequency of overrides due to budget shortfalls and the escalating cost of living in Arlington, would you consider making cuts to spending to keep things more affordable for residents? Mr. Hurd. Anytime we have an overriding campaign, there's a saying that we like to say is that in Arlington you get a lot of bang for your buck and that's true. If you look at Arlington's budget compared to neighboring budgets and the services we provide compared to neighboring services, we get a lot for the money that we spend. Unfortunately, overrides seem to be part of the landscape of our financial picture, but we do so responsibly. We spend responsibly already. I wouldn't come out and say that I want to cut budgets because I think we already run pretty lean budgets as it is and we've been able to continue to maintain a very stable fiscal situation in Arlington because it has been so well run and so I would just continue to hire good people and good finance people who keep the trains running on time. Thank you. Mr. Helmuth. Thank you. Arlington's per capita spending in government spending is actually really very modest compared to comparable communities where the median are a little bit lower. So I agree with my colleague that the cutting services is not desirable. I think that we do a lot with what we have, but I think this elect board's job really is to communicate honestly and clearly to the voters. Every time we do go out for an override, which is necessary over a few years, we have a conversation with the voters and we say we would like to preserve the services that we have or maybe improve them. This is what it's going to cost. Do you want to pay for it? And it's ultimately the voters that tell us whether that's what they want to do or the voters make the decision about whether we would need to reduce services if they would decline an override. I think the select board's job is to be honest about that and to earn the community's trust that when we make promises that we'll keep them and I'm proud that the select board has for many, many cycles kept the fiscal promises that we make keep our annual spending within certain limits, for instance. So I think that's the proper role and the proper way to think about it. Thank you. We will now hear closing statements from the candidates for select board member in reverse ballot order. You each have two minutes to speak and we will start with Mr. Herd. Thank you. And again, thank you to the legal and voters of Arlington and Division of Arlington for hosting this forum and for all the candidates who came out tonight and all of the audience who came. So we're not speaking to an empty room. You know, I've been on the Slack board for six years now. Come December of this year, I had to sit down and have some discussions with my family and just see if it would still fit our family dynamic to have me leaving every other Monday, like I said, for four hours. But, you know, for me, I really have a passion for the town. I grew up here. I raised my kids here. Both me and my wife went to school here and I really care about the direction of the town. I've enjoyed working with the current board. I think we work very well together. We have a variety of opinions, but we agree disagreeably, or we disagree agreeably, I think I said before. And so, you know, I have more work to be, that I wanna work, more issues that I wanna work on in town and I have the passion to continue to commit to the role on the Slack board as in addition to my other tasks that I have to deal with on a daily basis. And I do look forward to, hopefully, getting reelected for another three-year term and being able to continue in that capacity. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Helmuth. Thank you again to everyone who's here and for those who have hosted the event tonight. Arlington faces many challenges in the next three years, but I believe in us. I believe in our residents. I believe in our town employees, our many civic volunteers that John spoke about so eloquently in his opening statement. And I believe in our shared commitment to listen, to collaborate, to care for one another and to make Arlington a good place to live. I would be privileged to help lead the town in the second term on the Slack board and I'd like to ask for one of your two votes. As for your other vote, you can take your chances. But seriously, though, it has been a pleasure to work with John. I have found his wisdom on the board as a long-term resident of the town is somebody who is forward-thinking to be valuable and I'm delighted that he's re-upping for another term and I look forward that the voters so choose to allow us to do that together with our colleagues for another term. Thank you both. Round of applause for the candidates. Thank you. Thank you. Would the candidates for school committee please come forward. Now we will hear from the candidates for school committee. There are two seats open each for a three-year term. There are two candidates, Jane Pierce Morgan and Jeffrey D. Thielman. The seven members of the school committee serve three-year overlapping terms. They set policies for Arlington's public school system and appoint staff to implement these under the state laws and the policies of the State Department of Elated Mentory and Secondary Education. The committee appoints a superintendent as chief administrator of the school department to make recommendations on personnel and programs. The school committee is responsible for the school department's annual budget and represents the town in collective bargaining with the teachers. We will now hear opening statements from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first candidate is Ms. Morgan. Ms. Morgan, you may have two minutes to speak. Great, thank you so much. I didn't bring any notes with me tonight. So this could be very exciting. We'll test the skills of our card holders down there. So as you're aware, this is not a contested race. Two days ago, my husband chirped from the kitchen when he looked at his ballot. He's like, hey, nobody's running against you and Jeff, huh? And I was like, yeah, well, that was decided a while ago. But yes, it's just the two of us. I'm really happy to be here with Jeff and I wanna take my time tonight to share with you why I think I'm a good fit to go back to the school committee and then why I want to go back to the school committee. I am a parent, I have four children, one fifth grader at Stratton and I have three students at Arlington High School to freshman and a junior. In my professional life, I am an associate dean at Southern New Hampshire University. I work with adjuncts and then with many, many nontraditional learners. I used to be a classroom teacher. I'm also a soccer coach and I do a lot of other work in our community and with our students. I think that I have, I bring a valuable perspective to the committee. I've certainly been on the losing side of a few votes and I think that it's important that there are people that go and are willing to be in the minority sometimes. I have a spirit of inquiry that isn't necessarily always fully appreciated but I think it's really important to ask difficult questions to make sure that we understand why we're doing what we're doing. And then I wanna go back to the school committee because we're a really high functioning committee. You can look in the Boston Globe and you can see a lot of school committee articles about other committees that may have more challenges. Our committee is high functioning. We all have important roles to play. We're not competitive with each other and I'd like to go back and work with them for another three years. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Second candidate is Mr. Thielman. Mr. Thielman, you have two minutes. Thank you very much and it's an honor to be running with my friend, Jane Morgan. We have a very collaborative school committee. We work well together. We have different views and opinions and thoughts but we come together and we make good decisions. I have been on the school committee for many years. Some of you know, I know the district well. Our children have been in every level of the district. I've coached sports for my kids and I've served on town meeting and I've served on and chaired every subcommittee of the school committee at one point or another. My day job is CEO of a multi-state human services organization that serves 20,000 immigrants and refugees across New England and some in New York. And so I bring that experience and those views and what I learned in that job to this job on the school committee. I'm running for reelection of the school committee because of what I think we need to do as a committee in the years ahead. I worked with Jane and Paul Schlickman and other people on the strategic plan. And one of my goals is to make sure that the plan is fully funded and implemented. The plan requires all of our students to have access to a rigorous and excellent education and include steps to attract and retain quality teachers. There's a plan in there to improve our infrastructure and operations, which doesn't get a lot of attention. It's something I pay attention to. And we have a goal of enhancing communication and partnership. Tonight our superintendent had a town hall or a webinar with several hundred people, maybe 500 people listening in. So that's a good sign of communication with the community. The plan is in particular focus on students who have IEPs, black and Latino students, LGBTQIA plus students, and students from low income families, all groups that I've worked with in my day job. Since 2016, I've chaired the Arlington High School Building Committee. We have managed that project through a pandemic and a period of inflation. And we've kept the project on budget and we're almost done. And one of my goals over the next few years is to see that project through to completion as a member of the committee. Thanks very much. Thank you. We'll now move to the questions and Mr. Thielman, you'll be the first. Arlington residents voted for an operational override which will become effective this coming fiscal year. How are funds being allocated between the town and the schools? And what are your priorities concerning the allocation of these funds? Mr. Thielman, you have one minute. Well, my priorities are for the schools. I would say that the school department is going to be using some of those funds to fund our strategic plan, to hire some of the positions that we've talked about in the strategic plan, to hire additional staff, to improve communications, partnerships with the community, diversity activities. We're also using the money in that override to improve pay for our teachers. We're in the middle of negotiations right now so I don't wanna say too much about that, but that's a big part of the override. And when we were campaigned door to door, Jane and I and others, we talked to a lot of people and that's what we said. It was gonna allow us to use those funds to pay our teachers a more competitive rate. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Great, thank you so much. I did a lot of work on the November campaign and largely on the sort of the split between the sort of the town and the schools. So first of all, I think it's really important. When an override goes to the voters, certainly it's the purview of the select board to do it, there's a lot of pre-work done by the long range planning committee, by the select board, by the school committee to sort of come together with a package. The commitments that are part of the override for the schools, a large percentage of that is being directed towards compensation. We already bargained our contract with Unit D, which are our paraprofessionals. They work in classrooms, in hallways, all over our buildings and we already have an agreement with them that came into effect February 1st. So I think what's really important to say about overrides, Arlington's a town that keeps its promises. We say we're gonna do something. We said we were gonna work on compensation. We're part of the way there. We've done one of our units and we've got one to go. Thank you. Next question, we'll start with Ms. Morgan on this one. If the high school construction comes in under budget, how would you propose allocating those funds? Well, this is certainly a question that is more under Mr. Thielman's purview than mine. I would imagine, although I'm guessing here a little bit, that there was a debt exclusion was passed for the high school, which encompasses that project. And that project team, as led by Mr. Thielman as part of the high school building committee is going to make decisions about how to spend the money for that project. They have various, they have contingent amounts that they're making decisions about all the time they meet all the time. And so I have no doubt that they have a plan. If something happens to come in under, there is probably another place where they're holding out to be able to see if they can do X, Y, or Z as another part of the project. But I'm guessing you're gonna get a much more specific answer in about 10 seconds. Mr. Thielman. So as we go through, we have about 20, 21 months left in the project. And there are a number of items that we have kind of put in a parking lot that we may spend money on. Different improvements, different things that we've realized not the building is built need to be put in there. And the high school building committee takes votes by majority vote to add things back using funds in a contingency fund. We still have contingency funds available. We have to be very careful in the final 20 months of the project. If we end the project under budget, it means that the town's debt is less. It means our taxes are less than they would have done. That's really what it means. Thank you. Next question we'll be starting with Mr. Thielman. What is your position on retaining the requirement for students to pass the 10th grade MCAS test as a condition for graduation? I think we have to have a very thoughtful conversation about that on the school committee. In Arlington, it's not an issue. In some districts across the Commonwealth, I mean, I worked for a long time in the city of Boston, I ran a school there, and there are a lot of advantages to having an accountability system. It requires you to focus on lots of kids, but certainly kids who are at the bottom and behind academically. I mean, in Arlington, the MCAS causes us to lose valuable teaching and learning time, and it's not an issue in our town. I honestly don't think it's an issue in terms of a graduation requirement. In my many years on the school committee, we have not had an issue with this. So in terms of that ballot question, I'm not sure where I'm gonna land yet. I really don't know. Thank you. Ms. Morgan. Great, thank you. So I think to Mr. Thielman's point, it isn't something that we spend a lot of time deliberating about here, where our students largely do well on the MCAS, and there are programs for remediation for students who may need to take it a second time. And the high school is very thoughtful about how they make sure that students sort of make their way through those various pathways so that it isn't a deterrent for graduation. I don't doubt that there are districts and there are students who are impacted by this. So as a school committee member, it's not something I've given a whole lot of thought to in terms of how it would impact Arlington. As a voter, I'm sort of undecided and I don't know that my, I don't know how I will, I don't know how much how I will vote on that as an independent voter will necessarily be reflected in how I serve as a member here in Arlington. Thank you. Next question, we'll start with Ms. Morgan. Arlington's public schools mission statement values diverse identities. What is in place to ensure a safe environment for staff and students is enough being done to protect them, Ms. Morgan. Great, this is a great question. I think the answer is that this is something that we continue to talk about and think about and work on. The school committee in Arlington support has sort of three main parts of our purview, right? We hire fire and evaluate the superintendent. We approve policy and we approve the budget. So I think it's important to sort of speak to how we work on those pieces within those areas of our direct purview. So in terms of the budget, we have invested significantly over the last couple of budget cycles in building and strengthening a robust DEI-BJ department within the Arlington public schools. We've invested a lot of money in the right staff to be able to deliver to our students. And in terms of policy, we have a very active and reflective policy subcommittee. We relook at our policies to ensure that they are meeting the needs of the students that we have now and making sure that we're supporting them in what their needs are in our schools. Thank you, Mr. Seelman. You see diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging all through the strategic plan and you see it every day in our schools. It's something that our superintendent and the school committee have prioritized. I probably came to this issue later in life and I now have embraced it because I think it's something that actually makes our district better, it makes our staff better, it makes our kids better. And so there are a lot of healthy conversations that take place about diversity issues and differences that those of us who were my age would have never had a long time ago. So I see a lot of good things coming out of all these initiatives in our schools. I think kids are more open, more honest with each other. So we've had a lot of improvements. There's always work to do. There's always an area of growth and anytime something ugly or unfortunate happens in a school in our town that's racial or gendered, it's very sad and troubling but I do think we have good systems in place to address it. Thank you. The next question we'll be starting with Mr. Seelman. Do you think a 16 year old has sufficient civic knowledge to make informed decisions and participate in municipal elections? What is the basis for your opinion? Yeah, I have a 16 year old. Oh, so I have to kind of compartmentalize. Yes, there you go. Yes, I do think. I think if kids really want to participate, vote and get involved in elections, I think it'd be a good thing. Actually, I think anything that gets young people involved in civic life is a good thing. Anything that gets people participating, running for office, getting involved in town meeting voting is a very good thing. And the earlier we can do it, the earlier we get kids to participate in democracy, especially now in 2024 is a good thing. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Yeah, so I have a 16 year old and two 15 year olds. So actually we are outnumbered by this potential voting block at our house, which could be very exciting. You know, honestly, I think I spend a lot of time with 15 and 16 year olds. I drive them a lot of places. They seem to just show up at my house regularly. And truly, you can't really make them do things. You can't really influence them to do things. So I sort of feel like if they want to go and vote and participate, then I don't know that I would stand in their way. I think if they're actually gonna show up and do it and cast a ballot, that probably would be, you know, I think that it would be great for us. It would be wild at my house. And I don't know if they would vote for me to be honest with you. No, I mean truly, actually, but that's all right. You know, maybe Jeff and I would be thrown out in the next cycle and they would bring somebody else in, which might would be all right. So thank you. Thank you. I don't think we're talking about allowing them to run for office yet. Give them two years, they can do it. Concerns have been raised about the adequacy of Arlington Public Schools support for special education students. What steps are Arlington Public Schools taking to meet the educational needs of these students and how will you evaluate the outcomes of these steps? So we start with Ms. Morgan. Great, this is a really important question and something we talk about a lot on the school committee. So students with individualized education plans are one of the focal groups of the strategic plan. It means that all decisions that are being made or being discussed about at the administrative and school committee level have a lens to looking at how it will impact that particular group of students. So I think having them named and having that be part of the conversation is really important. I do think that the work that we are doing around compensation for both paraprofessionals and professional teachers is really important and impactful students with IEPs need consistency. They benefit from having veteran educators who have done this for a long time, working with them, veteran paraprofessionals who are serving them in their classrooms. So I think that focusing on them as part of the strategic plan as well as really working to improve the working conditions for the people who work most directly with them is important. Thank you, Mr. Thielman. Well, our family's had a student on IEP for many years in the district and so I would say that the most important thing you can do is professional development and retention of quality teachers and those two things actually make an individual education program work for our kids. And so I think we have put money into additional professional development. I know when I talk to teachers, teachers say the more education we can have, the more training we can have related to how to respond to the needs of different learners in the classroom, the better. And I think the more people we can keep and retain who stay with kids for a longer period of time, the better. And so those two things actually add up to improvements in support for kids who are on IEPs. Thank you. The next question will start with Mr. Thielman. Given the critical impact of climate change in our children's future, what measures are schools implementing to tackle this issue, Mr. Thielman? Well, I mean, the Arlington High School Building Committee, our goal is to create a lead platinum building. So one of the things we're trying to do in the school itself is create a building that is all electric, that is as climate, is environmentally friendly and is good for the climate. So it's been a focus of our school building projects. It's something that we think about. And also if you look at the curriculum, kids are learning about climate change throughout their 12 years in the Arlington Public School. So I think a good goal, an important goal for our district is to educate and make sure our students are engaged in the learning. One of our goals in education, our educational programs today is to have it be student-centered, have students be actively engaged in their learning, doing projects, thinking about things like climate change. So all that I hope and I think will result in a better climate for all of us in the future. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. So I actually asked this question. I'm the chair of the CIA subcommittee and we see our department directors with some regularity and I spoke to the science director. This was six or eight months ago and I asked her, how are we doing with talking to kids about climate change? And she said, we do it to the extent that we can but the Massachusetts frameworks are not particularly robust around climate science and issues around climate change. As a former scientist, once a scientist, always a scientist I suppose, I think they could use some substantial revision to provide more emphasis on that and it would make it easier for our curriculum directors and our educators to weave more of that in. And at the same time, I see it happening in art classes. I see it happening in, there are students who are designing murals that talk about climate change. I see, so I think we weave it into what we're doing and we would benefit from having more robust frameworks around climate science. Thank you. The next question will start with Ms. Morgan. One of our LinkedIn public schools for priorities in its strategic plan is to create sustaining collaborative partnerships. What is your perspective on how the district is partnering collaboratively with families to meet the educational needs of all students, facilitate consistent two-way communication and provide timely, transparent, relevant and accessible information to all stakeholders? And what is your role in ensuring that the district meets the aspiration of this priority? Yeah, this is really important to me. I have kids at multiple levels. I think that it has been challenging. We have a number of new elementary principles this year. We have four, and creating consistency across schools is something that's gonna take time and ensuring that parents at Hardy are getting similar communication to parents at Dallin, right? It's a work in progress. I know that it's a priority of the district leadership team and principle certainly as well. So my role, which is sort of unique in that I have a lot of kids and at multiple levels is I really like to share my feedback about communication or lack thereof with the people who are doing or not doing that communication. So I am often in conversation with the superintendent and I'll say, hey, gosh, you know, I got this and like, this really isn't what I thought we were doing here. So I think that we all have a role to play in providing feedback around the communication that we get and being really clear about the communication that we need. Thank you, Mr. Thielman. So one of the major responsibilities of the school committee is to evaluate the superintendent and that is something we hold the superintendent accountable for and it's executed in a couple of different ways. We've set up a new office in our district to liaise with the community. It's responsible for making sure there's an orderly way for new people to come into the district. It's only in its first year. So the Department of Communications and Family Relations, I don't know if they're the right title, but that department is focused on making sure our communication with the community is better. I think Dr. Holman tonight had a webinar, town hall webinar with a mid-year report for parents and other people to listen to. I think she in particular is really good about getting out in the community and talking to people and listening to people. Execution at each individual school varies and that's always an area of growth and when there's an issue, we address it. Thank you. This will be the last question before we go to closing remarks and we will start with Mr. Thielman on this one. State Representative Ryan Hamilton has filed a bill to require all high school students in Massachusetts to take a half credit course in financial literacy in order to graduate. Is financial literacy part of the curriculum for Arlington Public School students? If not, should financial literacy be required for graduation? Mr. Thielman. So I would have to think about that a lot. Every time we get a mandate from the state it doesn't come with enough funding and it doesn't really, and we've got a constrained curriculum already. We don't have enough time to do all the things we're supposed to do. So I would have to think about it. Is financial literacy important? Yeah, of course it's important. Can we teach it in other ways? Probably, I don't know if I would endorse that particular bill. I'd have to think about it more but I can tell you that our days in the school district, the courses that we offer are constrained and if you add another requirement like that it could take away other things. I'd have to think about it a lot more. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Yeah, I agree with Mr. Thielman. I think it's, I have students who are making their way through Arlington High School and it's not a question of, gosh, what class do I have to take? I roll, it's like, I have all of these classes that I want to take and all of these things that I want to do and how am I actually going to fit them in to do them? So how that would be integrated, certainly if it's a mandate, we will comply. But I would prefer that our school district be given the flexibility to continue to integrate these ideas and this work throughout the curriculum. It's probably more meaningful for students that way anyway. Thank you. We will now hear closing statements from the candidates for school committee in reverse ballot order. You each have two minutes to speak and we will start with Mr. Thielman. I want to thank the league and Envision Arlington for organizing this conversation tonight. I'm grateful that you're keeping democracy alive in our town and I'm also grateful to all those that helped organize this. We have a very good school committee that works cohesively, that addresses issues. We all have different expertise, different perspectives. We have not always, Jane and I were on a vote a year ago or so. We were not in the majority but I think it was a cordial discussion. It was a thoughtful discussion and that is what people expect from the school committee. I'd like to think that when people watch school committee meetings, those who do, that they see a thoughtful conversation. I learned something every meeting from somebody who comes before us. I think we have good dedicated people in our district. We have excellent teachers who are devoted to our kids and we can always get better. And part of the reason why I want to keep on the school committee is because I want to make the district better. I want to make it stronger. I want to make it a more welcoming place for all learners and I want us to be conscious of the fact that if we help learners who are not succeeding, we actually lift the votes for everybody. So I'm honored to serve on the committee. I enjoy serving with Jane and Paul and the whole team and I hope you give me one of your two votes on April 6th. Thank you, Ms. Morgan. Great, yes. Thank you all for being here. I'm excited that I'm sure there are hundreds of viewers at home as well riveted by our conversation here. It is important to do these things even in contested races because it holds us accountable to being able to sort of articulate what we want to do, what we want to think about, what's important to us. You know, if I came up here and I felt like I didn't have anything to say then I probably shouldn't be here, right? And so I think events like this in a town like this are really, really important. So thank you to Invision Arlington, to the League of Women Voters. You guys are such an important part of the fabric of what we do here. You keep coming back year after year and I'm really grateful for that. And I hope that everybody will cast a vote on April 6th. I hope you'll vote for Jeff. I hope you'll vote for me. I hope you'll vote for our colleagues on the select board who we work with very collaboratively as well. And I am just grateful to have had the opportunity to come here and share some of my thoughts about but what we want to do for our schools, what we want to do for our students, what we want to do for our staff and why that's important to me. So thank you so much, have a great night. Thank you, thank you for, I'd like to thank the candidates for running for office and for adhering to the timing schedule and format and now Patty Muldoon will close the program. Patty? Oh, we just love thanking everybody. So thank you so much, Margaret Copey for being our moderator and to our wonderful candidates for participating tonight and to you all and our viewing audience for watching and learning more. And we wanna thank Arlington Community Media Inc. for broadcasting it. So let me invite you that if you're interested in either the activities of Envision Arlington or the League of Women Voters of Arlington information is available on both our websites. And in addition, a government primer previously compiled based upon six citizen corner articles published in the Arlington Advocate is also available through the town's website. And given that we have a low number of contested races we wanna encourage people to educate yourselves and consider running next go round. Candidates night has been broadcast live and in person at eight o'clock on tonight, March 27th, 2024. And you can of course visit acmi.tv for rebroadcast information. And to our voters who are here tonight and throughout the town, remember to vote on Saturday, April 6th polls will be open from eight a.m. to eight p.m. Thank you so much for coming tonight and for watching. The forum has been sponsored by Envision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Good night. ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help.