Table of Contents
Open Letter to Glastonbury
| My name is Kali Cavanaugh and I am excited to be running for a seat on the Board of Education this election season! I moved to Glastonbury while I was finishing college, and shortly after settling in to living on my own in the village of South Glastonbury, met my husband while waiting tables at the South Tavern. My husband and I have since planted deep roots in this town, and welcomed a daughter to our family. It is my sincere hope that she will benefit from all this community has to offer for years to come. I have worked with children and adolescents throughout my career, and currently work for the juvenile court conducting forensic evaluations. I am well versed in having difficult conversations, and advocating for the best way to handle complex situations, keeping the best interests of youth and their communities in mind. While there is great focus on meeting our children’s emotional needs our schools and community need to remember that teaching kindness is only one part of the equation. In addition to their emotional skills, their needs to be an emphasis on the different strengths our children bring to this world, and the learning styles they present with. “Traditional” academics are not the catch all for the whole student population, however a focus on workforce development and a critical need for greater exploration of the trades benefits all students. Our children deserve a greater focus on broad functional skills to promote independence and financial freedom; skills they can take into their lives immediately upon graduation. This year, as a community, our goal should be to restore a balanced perspective in the decision making arenas that affect our children. How do we do this? More opportunities for community voices to be heard. Develop opportunities for community volunteers on BOE subcommittees. Promote checks and balances via a representative board that ensures fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers, while truly listening and welcoming taxpayer perspectives that are voiced. While we may not always agree on everything, a one sided board forfeits valuable perspectives that may shed light on forgotten issues. If elected, I vow to work towards a participatory democracy with greater community control. Be direct in addressing the concerns of our community members, advocate for transparency in board decisions and public process, and hold our public schools accountable for meeting the needs of our families. I thank you for your support. |
Addressing the Elephant in the Room
| We firmly adhere to the core principal of choice, with deep respect for a person’s individuality and freedom. We believe in the time honored mantra, “Life and let live” and actively uphold the mutual respect necessary to practice it. We value and respect the freedom to choose who you love, how to raise your children and how to identify, how you think, what you value, what you celebrate, and how you choose to care for yourself and your family. Just as we support individual autonomy and freedom of choice, we will respect and advocate for the rights of parents to choose what information their children consume in all aspects of life. We have faith in our teachers and schools and believe increased collaboration and honoring the role of parents and caregivers can only strengthen our community and school system. We encourage mental health supports in our schools, with the vision that the main focus of school is delivering high quality academics and socialization. Schools should be monitoring our children and reaching out to parents of concerns arise. Our schools are an added saftey net and support for our children, not the leader in raising them. We acknowledge that there will always be children who require more attention and focus from our schools, either due to the parental/familial/caregiver capacity. Every family dynamic does not look the same, there will always be different levels of need in any population — however the first step should always include increasing family involvement. We support a robust library consisting of “windows and mirrors” allowing our students to take a deeper look into who they are, where they came form, and to challenge and enhance their world view through new perspectives and individual experiences shared in texts. While honoring the value that a rich library can provide, we encourage safeguards and channels for parental control that welcome open dialogue if concerns arise. Banning books and censoring information is not the answer. Opportunities for respectful dialogue to share concerns, points of view, and to listen to offered solutions appears to be an underutilized strategy for collaboration between the Board of Education, our schools, and parents. It is our hope that, if elected this November, we will be able to promote these channels of communication between community members, our BoE and our schools. |