Over the past month or so, a small, vocal group of people and their complaints against the school committee have received a lot of press. As a parent of an elementary and middle school student, I wanted to take a moment to focus on the good the committee has done to ensure the health and wellbeing of our students and their families.

One such example is the change in school start times. As a community, we witnessed the rise in anxiety and other mental health issues among our students just as in many parts of the country even before the pandemic hit. The school committee took the initiative to focus on the social-emotional wellbeing of our children. They listened to sleep experts and to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics to devise a policy to help address this from one front by giving our older kids time for much needed sleep. And now that my daughter is a 6th grader and has morphed from an early bird to a night owl, I am so grateful that this schedule change has been made. I know that my daughter and our family are less stressed every morning because of this sensible change.

When I voted for our current committee members, I voted for individuals who would help our students not only be strong academically but also be complete young people. I wanted committee members who would be critical thinkers, listen to experts and translate data into action. And that, thankfully, is what we have in our current committee.

Sincerely,

Cristina Watkins

Barrington