With Election Day now in the rearview mirror, the City Council and School Committee are busy shifting seats and gearing up for next year.
Last week, it was Ward 2 City Councilor Mike Fenton announcing that he had secured the votes to become the Council’s next president, replacing Jimmy Ferrera, who was not re-elected.
Today, incumbent Denise Hurst announced that she’ll be the next vice chair of the School Committee, with the unanimous support of her colleagues. (The chair is held by the mayor, ex officio.)
Hurst used her announcement to talk about her plans to hold School Committee “meet and greet” events in the community. She also addressed some of the challenges facing the city’s school system: “I do not believe there is one solution to improving academic achievement, increasing the graduation rate and decreasing the drop-out rate. There are a variety of factors that need to be taken into account, such as access to quality, early childhood education, parental and community involvement, interventions to ensure children are in school on a daily basis and receiving tiered instruction based on their learning needs. I also believe it is important to ensure that the adults in the City who have not received a high school diploma, be given an opportunity to obtain a GED, because when a parent understands the importance of an education they almost always impress that upon their own children.”
Hurst notes in her press release that she’s active in the Mass Association of School Committees; I’ll add that she’s also a board member of one of my favorite Valley organizations, MotherWoman.
It’s been a good month for the Hurst family: Denise’s husband, Justin, was just elected to the City Council, topping the ticket in the race for the at-large seats (and displacing Ferrera).
