A long-time South Arlington resident, dedicated parent and community leader, Greg has a strong record of activism in support of our public schools and a positive vision for carrying our school system into the future. A skilled collaborator, Greg will bring years of thoughtful, effective service to our School Board.

 

Greg brings a first-hand understanding of what it will take to meet the challenges facing our school system.

 

These include:

 

• Addressing School Crowding Now – Building new capacity and establishing innovative programs to reduce crowding and accommodate all students in a safe, sustainable and modern learning environment.

 

• Eliminating the Achievement Gap – Ensuring all students achieve their full potential, by distributing resources and programs equitably, better identifying and fully addressing the needs of our challenged learners, and improving achievement to strengthen post-graduation success.

 

• Demanding Fiscal Responsibility – Planning smartly, and building a stronger relationship between the School Board and County Board to ensure the wisest use of limited resources, a predictable funding stream for our school system’s current and future needs, and an alignment in APS and County master planning processes.

 

Additionally, Greg believes we need:

 

• Sensible Transportation – The school system has a responsibility to help our children get to and from school safely. Nineteen months ago, right before the start of a new school year, the Superintendent cut bus service to hundreds of families without adequate notice or consultation with the community. With reduced service, some kindergarten students would have to walk more than a mile to school before APS would provide bus service. Sixth graders would have to walk a mile and a half. That doesn't seem reasonable to me. It is past time to revisit this decision.

 

• Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) – Greg was actually the only parent who went to the School Board meeting to speak on behalf of adding FLES to Randolph. What he wanted for his son - additional hours of instruction with language, music and art - is what he thinks all our elementary students deserve. Greg fully support adding FLES to all our elementary schools so we have equity in instruction across Arlington.

 

• Adequate Library Staff – Our elementary school librarians spend much of their time teaching our students. Cutting elementary library aides --as was recently proposed--would pull our librarians away from teaching reading and technology to our students. We need to support our students' literacy, not cut those who focus on it.

 

• Smarter Assessment and Testing - We must strike a better balance for our classrooms that will let our teachers focus more on instruction. We currently carve out too much of our students time for testing. While we must have accountability, we can't drown our teachers and student in tests. 

 

I value and respect our teachers. They deserve to know where I stand on all the issues that matter to them. And so do you! So I want to also share with you my answers to the Arlington Education Association/A-PAC endorsement questionnaire. As a school board member, I will advocate for our educators and listen to their views on how we can make APS even better for our kids.