SWAMPSCOTT — Town schools benefit from quality consistent leadership but the three School Committee candidates said the school system faces daunting financial challenges.
Committee Chairwoman Amy O’Connor, Committee member Carin Marshall and challenger Keiko Zoll outlined their perspectives on the schools during Tuesday’s forum sponsored by the Daily Item/itemlive.com and hosted by Swampscott Educational Access and high school media arts instructor Joseph Douillette’s TV Studio Production and Media Arts Labclass at Swampscott High School.
The Item on Thursday sponsors a similar forum for Board of Selectmen candidates at the high school. Doors open at 6. Attendees are encouraged to submit a question that may be posed to the candidates.
The three said the stakes are high for the town as it embarks on working with the state to build a new elementary school.
State school building officials have given the town four construction options: Build a new school for about half of the town’s kindergarten through fifth grade students; build a new school for third through fifth grade students; build a new kindergarten through fourth grade school or renovate or rebuild the Hadley School.
“This is the biggest project in a generation. But the ramifications if it doesn’t happen are even greater,” said Marshall.
O’Connor said the School Department must focus on controlling costs and closely watching its budget if the town is going to successfully help pay for a major project like a new school.
A local study is seeking to answer detailed questions about the project and school officials have made a list of project priorities. O’Connor said the location for a school is a top concern.
Mindful that Swampscott voters previously rejected an all-district school project, Zoll, a digital media professional, pointed out that 25 percent of town residents have children in local schools.
“I think this is the biggest challenge we face. We’re making a big ask,” she said.
The mother of a Stanley School kindergartner, Zoll said she has won several awards for children and family advocacy. O’Connor is running for a third term on the committee and said Swampscott, “for the first time in a decade,” has steady, consistent school leadership under Superintendent Pamela Angelakis.
“Consistency in leadership is directly related to student success,” said O’Connor.
Marshall is also running in the April 30 town election for a third term. She said committee members have accomplished a lot but said the schools have reached a “critical juncture where we don’t want to lose momentum.”
All three candidates support building-based budgeting, a fiscal accountability method adopted by the schools five years ago that, they said, allows principals to set priorities and, Marshall said, “bring clarity to the overall picture” of school spending.
O’Connor said building-based budget underpins the need for town schools to “constantly evaluate where we spend our money.
“Swampscott is taxed too highly. Part of what the School Department needs to do is work to work within its means,” she said.
A video recording of Tuesday’s candidates forum will be scheduled and available as Video on Demand (VOD) on both the Educational Access government and education cable channels and on the Swampscott Public School YouTube channel.
The channels are as follows: Education — Comcast Channel 15 and
Verizon Channel 40 and tv.swampscottps.org (for both live streaming and video on demand). The forum will be shown on the Education Channel daily at 10 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
To view on YouTube go to Swampscott Public Schools
The Government channels are: Comcast Channel 22 and Verizon Channel 41 and tv.swampscottma.gov with broadcasts daily at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Students participating in Tuesday’s forum production were:
Meredith Lutter, producer: Ian Jaffe, director; Jake Bartram; Isaac Dreeben;
Michael Ferragamo; Isaac Green; Abigail Guiney; Zach Hankins; Julio Lugo; Michaela Maher; Sydney Marshall; Matt Mauriello; Ethan Runstadler; Dylan Smith; Valerio Tatafiore; Hatim Tyawil and Brady Whelan.
