001good evening my name is angela bardino and i'm a member at the gilbert school in one of the classes hosting tonight's debate i'd like to begin by saying thank you to everyone who came out tonight your attendance is greatly appreciated before we begin i'd like to ask everyone to rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you the format for this evening is as follows each individual will be allotted two minutes for an opening statement and at the end of the debate each party will be allowed two minute closing statements during the debate the time the time to discuss each question among fellow party members
002will be one minute each party and the petitioning candidate will have two minutes to answer should any candidate wish to rebut another candidate's statement please raise your hand and you will be recognized by the moderator elizabeth bagel you are allowed one and a half minutes for rebuttal if there is no rebuttal we will proceed with the questioning finally we would like to ask all candidates to speak clearly into the microphone the debate is being streamed live on the gilbert school's youtube page tgs tv this is thanks to the efforts of gilbert school video production and broadcasting teacher stephen hodges and his students mariah castillo and joshua flores we will have two time keepers andre cabral and desire lapointe to discreetly inform speakers of their time remaining to answer a question the sound and lighting for
003tonight are being handled by students from mr scott minerally's theater tech class the students asking the questions are caitlyn tucker ailani small isla gudek and tim crandall i'd like to introduce elizabeth daigle our moderator for tonight's debate [Applause] good evening my name is elizabeth daigle and i'm a student from the ap government in politics class and i will be serving as your moderator tonight we will begin with a two-minute opening statement from each of the candidates first we will have tara l sunday from the petitioning candidate followed by the democrats cheryl mcglynn heffernan and renata b waldron and then followed by the republican party saboteur j levetry iii and sondra a strobar thank you oh yeah sorry guys you may now begin so as an introduction yeah your opening segment um thank you um i'm
004i'm running again uh following uh um a two-year filling a two-year vacancy um i'm really enjoyed my time with the board i'm currently a work for a hartford-based non-profit and we fund other community-based nonprofits i formerly worked for as a u.s deputy clerk for the united states government federal district court and i just you know i have a daughter who's currently a fifth grader at pearson school which is a huge motivator for me to be to be running but really i mean i have the all students in mind and and with every decision that i've made um you know it's i'm i'm grounded by the fact that uh that it's i have the in the entire community in mind really um i've really enjoyed the time that i've had on on the on the board
005so far i've learned so much i have so much still to learn um i'm serving on the the curriculum and the the finance committees and i'd really hope to continue the progress that we've made and continue to make improvements hello my name is sheryl mcglinn i also go by the name sheryl heffernan as my my capacity as an attorney i took my husband's name mcglynn when i married him two years ago shawn and i moved here five years ago a year after that i ran for the border vet and i was elected and i have found that to be an amazing experience to serve this community that we've adopted as our hometown in such a way has been very rewarding our focus my focus and the whole boards i would say has been on the
006children on providing a good education a safe environment for them which improves not just the quality of life for our children but the community in its totality i have served on the finance committee and the policy committee i have also worked in doing negotiations for the teachers contract and with the gilbert school i've been very active to the extent i can and i really enjoy that i think my focus has always been on the kids and i asked for another four years so i can continue the progress that we have made in this system the last number of years thank you hi everyone my name is renee waldron and i've done the mic closer can you hear me all right um so my name is renee waldron i've been a teacher for 20 years in
007torrington a special education teacher and i also have three children who have gone through the winchester public schools i believe that winstead students deserve the best quality of education possible and i want to ensure that that happens by being committed to building strong relationships with the schools parents and the community through positive open communication i've attended some board meetings recently and also pto meetings and the dylan's wings of change presentation here at gilbert there are so many people who just work so hard staff members dedicated parents to enriching the lives of the students in in winstead and i think that you know we can we can definitely continue the good work that we've done um so you know as a special education teacher i have always felt that you know establishing a positive learning environment
008is really extremely important because kids learn best when they're an environment where they feel you know good about themselves and feel supported so i want to make sure that that happens and so i guess as a parent as a teacher and hopeful member of the winchester board of education i really am committed to doing all that i can to kind of keep things moving in the right direction thank you hello hello you hear me i am sal labetry i am running for board of education here in winstead because i believe that it's gotten a little out of hand this state this country in this town frankly with how kids are treated in the school system parents should have the ultimate decision whether it comes to masking vaccinations curriculum all of the above we need to
009let it be our child our choice not the choice of somebody in an office somewhere and that's why i'm running to give the power back to the parents where it belongs thank you very much good evening my name is sandra strubar and i'm running as a republican for the board of education i'm so happy to see the students here taking an interest in civics and i'm glad that i can be a part of the debates this evening thanks for inviting us i'm an over 20 year teaching veteran i've had hundreds of students over the years and to me teaching is a calling it's a very difficult job especially if you're invested in the success of each and every student but i loved almost every moment of it i'm also a product of public education and
010i wish i could say that i pretty much loved every moment of that but i know there are many that do and i would posit that there are quite a few who don't and that is why i feel that public education needs to be reimagined and reworked so that it serves a greater number of children as you may or may not know parents across the nation are making waves and board of education meetings i've seen parents eloquently and passionately voice their frustrations at what they deem to be government and administrators making decisions about their children in which they had no say from masking to library content to critical race theory parents have felt that they have not been allowed to be a part of the decision-making process this needs to change board of ed members
011are elected by and completely accountable to the citizens in their school district it's not domestic terrorism to have questions and voice concerns as vocally as you like actually it's representative democracy and action this is in a nutshell why i decided to run for the board of education so that i too am able to represent and have a say in these matters that concern most americans i look forward to tonight's debate thank you we will now move on to the questions hi my name is caitlin tucker i'm a senior at the gilbert school and i'll be asking questions tonight the first question is what do you hope to accomplish as a member of the board of education this question will be answered first by the democrats then republicans then the petitioning candidate you will now have
012one minute for discussion hi so i'm going to answer this question i feel that it's all about building up and coming together as a community and i think that that is um the most kind of important piece is making sure that we're working together as parents along with students and um and teachers to make sure that our our education here in winston is the best for our kids um i think that you know sal and i are mainly interested it's a it's a triune when you have a parent and a teacher and a student it's they need to work together in order to have the best outcome for school students and i think with the hinsdale renovation we have a really great opportunity here i'm glad that that we're doing that i think it's going
013to be a benefit for the young children and i think just to continue to strengthen to increase um our numbers i am concerned about the and about the number of children that have been pulled out of school to be homeschooled this year i've met with several families and more who are pulling their school their children out because they feel disenfranchised and i feel that we need to to make them more comfortable and they need to be heard because they're pulling their children out because they don't feel heard so that's a problem within the community excuse me too so i'm hoping to be a bridge for that um my why is uh really to contribute to the community and this is a way that i i feel that i can do so um i'd really like
014to continue to build the engagement between parents and the community i think we've seen some progress with that um and i'd really like to stay on that upward trajectory um i would say that uh we have more kids in the district i think than we have in like eight years um and that's that's a great thing um i i think that really reflects positively on winstead um i you know we've seen increased test scores uh mathematics and reading i i'd really like to continue to again uh to um to support these these improvements um and i just think that you know the public education the quality of uh of education in winstead is is the primary focus and to keep doing what what we've been doing and supporting the the staff the parents the superintendent
015that's it thanks are there any rebuttals at this time if not we will move on to the next question hello my name is isla gutick and i'm a senior at the gilbert school and the next question is what do you see as being in need of improvement in the district this question will be answered first by the republicans then the petitioning candidate then the democrats you will now have one minute for discussion who goes first we do thank you could you replace the question one more time what do you see as being in need of improvement in the district well i know tara mentioned that test scores are up so that's great i know we were an alliance district and i'm glad to see that that's happening um i know we have more students this
016year and i would imagine it's because of people who've moved into this area from the west over there new york again i have a concern about the homeschooling parents who are pulling their children for various reasons um i think we need to make sure that once this emergency mandate by the governor is finished with that we have a plan for what we're going to do regarding masking for students and again with the hinsdale renovation it's a great opportunity to really introduce some new ideas for the younger children i know i've talked to a few children's parents too who feel their special needs children that that program could be improved so with that thank you petition in canada okay um i mean i think this just kind of piggyback on on the reason why i'm running
017is uh is to keep building on on really what we've already built i think we have an opportunity with gilbert um to improve relationships there um and and i think um with uh with mr chagru um just everything that's been reported back has been very positive um so i mean i think that's an area that certainly can use improvement and like let's be honest i think there's um there's been some history there but it seems like it's certainly moving in the right direction um so i would i would say that's probably one of the major areas so i would say that one of the areas that needs improvement is communication it's a communication between the board and the parents we've been in this board have been very encouraging to parents to come to our meeting
018to participate last year when we were doing things via zoom i was surprised how few actually would show up on zoom and i would encourage people through my facebook posts like come on participate we want to hear from you you really do and that's important in a representative democracy it's important to hear from people um the so one of the things that we're doing right now at the board is we we always have public comment at the beginning of the meeting that's always been as a courtesy to community members not to sit through our entire long meeting if they don't want to in order to have a say what we've decided to do is we're going to have two public comment periods we're going to have one at the beginning and then we're going to
019have one towards the end so after certain business so if people want to comment on the actual businesses going on that particular meeting they can do that when you know afterwards after they learn about it so that's a really good step there's also communication between gilbert and the winchester board in the four years that i've been on the board i've been involved in gilbert negotiations and it's been very frustrating because of the lack of information sharing the lack of explanations to why things are done in a certain way it's been a very unusual relationship but what we're seeing now with the new administration is is a give and take is it communication is it is a desire to work collaboratively something that we've been fighting for for the last few years so those are all
020good things as far as students we have new students coming into the community they've been coming in from other districts in connecticut and we also bring in teachers who want to come here people want to come because our education says it has gotten so much better that people want to teach here and they want to send their kids here thank you are there any rebuttals at this time may i ask a question yeah um i'm curious because i know you guys said that communication is key and i agree obviously with parents but we're trying one of the things that i noticed is we were trying to find youtube videos of all the meetings of board of education and we couldn't find them anywhere is that something that's accessible to parents so that they can watch
021the meetings if they can't make it to because they were not on the city site or youtube or anywhere that we could find during the time period we're doing a zoom the meetings were being recorded now they are recorded when we're able to be in the hearing room like last last week's meeting because of the holiday we were put into the blue room where there's no recording capacity but all the meetings are recorded and they are maintained at the town clerk's office so you can go to the town clerk and you can listen to the meetings that's the system for any town maintenance not particular to the board of vet that's my understanding i think um can i just correct me if i'm wrong were the um weren't the zoom meetings actually maybe reportedly reported
022and again that were available in your living room we will now move on to the next question good evening my name is tim crandall and i'm a junior at the gilbert school this question is some have complained about the lack of communication between the schools in winchester how would you improve in the communication and continuity between buildings administrators and teachers this question will be answered first by the petition candidate democrats and then the republicans you will now have one minute for discussion just ask really quickly just within the the winchester public schools all of them oh okay okay thanks some have complained about the lack of communication between the schools in winchester how would you improve the communication and continuity between buildings administrators and teachers all right i'm just gonna i think that this is
023uh something that that we've continued to work on i'm still again you know being newer to the board um i've tried to pay as much attention as possible um to to what the history is and and sort of how to move forward um i think that our superintendent has done a wonderful job as far as trying to be responsive as possible i would say internally i mean if there's something that's brought to the attention of the board of education that's falling short within um any particular school um it's not to my knowledge but i would say among the schools uh it it seemed to me that the the communication has been pretty good i mean if we're also talking about gilbert again it seems like this is improving um as far as how to improve
024communication and that's a great question it does seem like it's improving um but i i know that's not a very uh solid answer so so um with winchester board of ed um what we have done through mel our superintendent she has offered professional development and we always try to offer it to the gilbert teachers if it's something that's applicable to them that's been going on for a number of years i know the administrators the current administrators have been meeting repeatedly again they're working trying to work more collaboratively so there's better transition and that should continue that definitely needs to continue um you know that's what we've been doing historically and it's getting better again with the change of administration gilbert we really see a different attitude more collaborative interesting working in the collaborative manner and
025that's going to improve the relationship between the schools and it's going to better things for our kids tremendously especially as they transition from one system to the other and you want to admit yeah i just you know um i was i did attend the meeting the pto for the winchester public schools but i'm not sure if there's a pto for gilbert i i heard that there may not be but i think it would be a great you know initiative to start a pto in gilbert and maybe you know together both ptos can kind of work jointly that would improve i think the relationships with the parents and teachers are also involved in the pto meetings so that would be great and um even if we could do a couple of collaborative pd days like professional
026development days for teachers at gilbert and um teachers at you know bachelor and and pearson that would also be um but we're always open to suggestions so if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve that communication then we're always open for that too something that i noticed as running for this office i could see that all schools would benefit from having a more public curriculum it's very hard the website needs work our public winchester public schools websites are lacking and if you get on there and look and really try to delve into some of the curriculum or education it's very hard even like we had mentioned before the youtube channel in winston you can get on the youtube channel and look at all the board of selectmen meetings and just watch every single one
027it seems as you can't do that with the board of education for some reason i there must there's a step missing there and i feel like all this would benefit through the internet using technology if we can all get on that and um work together to to create a more positive and a better internet experience that we can all follow along more easily are there any rebuttals at this time we will now move on to the next question my name is eilani small and i'm a senior here at the gilbert school the next question is special education has been very controversial and sometimes consensus issue in winchester how do you plan to make that make sure that the ipes are followed as federal law dictates this question will be fir will be answered first by
028the democrats then the republicans then the petitioning candidate you will now have one minute for discussion so special education has been a very controversial and sometimes contentious issue in winchester how do you plan to make sure that the iep plan iep are followed as federal law dictates okay thank you um so as a special education teacher um you know you do have to follow that iep that's the individualized education plan for each individual student that has special education services um so it it kind of has to be followed otherwise you know parents can file due process so um i think that you know making sure that teachers have access to the ieps is extremely important and also you know working collaboratively with the winchester public schools i know that winchester public schools is you know
029they they do the special education piece at gilbert as well so you know it carries over and um therefore that's also a reason why the communication between gilbert and the winchester public schools needs to be really strong especially for that reason i'd just like to add one thing ieps and special ed are confidential the board of education is not involved in the formulation reinforcement of ieps we have the administrative we have the superintendent and administrators and the teachers and the special ed coordinator they're responsible for it we cannot legally get involved in that yeah okay so ieps as you said right the board of edits really not their par view um it's definitely the principal is the person who's overall but teachers need to also feel supported the job is hard enough and having ieps
030you need to have enough support for these teachers so that they feel that they can carry out all the particulars of an iep for students so as you said it's really not a boe thing but i would imagine if it became a problem it might become a boa problem thanks i'm i'm gonna default to renee's that's my understanding as well is that it's it's um the school is liable if so the question was uh how do you make sure that the ieps are followed um i would think that if the ieps weren't being followed then the parents have a path to to ensure that they are followed so i would say obviously i would uh increasing communication between the staff and administration as well as the parents if in fact they're being included in the
031process are there any rebuttals at this time we will now move on to the next question this next question is a question from the audience if you have voted against a motion and your position fails will you accept the majority's decision and support it you will now have one minute for discussion republicans then petitioning then democrats could you repeat the question one more time sorry if you have voted against the motion and you and your position fails will you accept the majority decision and support it i suppose that would based on would be based on the the motion i would also always stand up for my principle regardless if everyone voted against it and i was for it i would i would go along with that i would stand up for my principal first not
032just go along because i lost the uh the vote there thank you um i would i would go with majority um i would certainly again you know as cell said i would share my opinion um but i would certainly go with majority i mean we're elected it's an elected position and we're representing uh the community so i mean naturally i think you know you would uh you would go with the majority so when you're on a board you are representing the community that elected you you are supposed to do your own due diligence you do your arguments you try to convince your fellow board members and it comes down for a vote you vote your conscience you vote which you think is right but when you if you do not prevail if you do not
033win in that vote then as a member of the board it's you're you're not an individual you're part of the board so you have to support the principle that the board majority voted for that is part of a democratic system where we have represented democracy and that's how it works so it does not work if you have a member on the board who lost in their position was unable to convince the rest of us to support their position then go out into the public and rally against what the board's doing that leads to a nightmare it's not how boards operate it's not a matter of compromising your principles it's a matter of acting as a responsible member of a board to which you were elected to represent the people are there any rebuttals at this
034time uh i disagree with that uh being an elected member you are elected as well to serve the people who elected you and uh if you choose to hold your position that's your prerogative and the people who voted for you putting that trust in you to do so we will now move on to the next question are you satisfied with the current level of funding for the school system or would you be in favor of an increase in the military to adequately fund the school system this question will be answered first by the petitioning candidate then the then the democrats then the republicans you will now have one minute for discussion all right i guess i'll just jump in on it um i i would support i saw and i'll and i'll tell you why
035is because we've been working with a a flat budget a zero percent increase um for gosh i think it's seven years now that's just unheard of um i think that the our superintendent our finance director staff has done a really wonderful job of improving the schools i mean been able to really do you know the list is i can go through the list of all the improvements but but i would i would definitely support i would support that and i would hope that the community would support that as well because you know at the end of the day our our role is to support the uh the students and to give them the best education possible and unfortunately that takes money i'll also say that i believe it's 95 percent of our budget are fixed
036costs so things get more expensive i need to wear my glasses so i can see that um and we have uh not we um i would say the superintendent the finance director um and i guess the board as a whole as well because because we vote have taken strides to combine costs um with with gilbert with the town you know really there's there's the list again is lengthy on on what's been done in order to to work within the budget that we've had and and and the the message that has been loud and clear that it's uh it's it's time so the board of ed budget has been flat i believe for even longer than seven years even while partial number expansion's a significant portion of our cost which has been the gilbert school has
037gone up we have cut programs we've consolidated we've made as many adjustments as we can we've been operating fortunately with some grants that have helped us in certain areas we also in in that time period we have added in a preschool program a neural education program that is just a tremendous benefit to this community but as tara said costs go up fixed costs go up we've got teachers salaries go up by contract and there's no benefits which we have no control over oil prices go up utility other utilities go up so yes there it is very likely as our grants disappear and as we have an increase in the population in our school system and our costs go up we're going to need more money come next year or if you're following that that's something
038that we'll work on as a board in conjunction with the superintendent of the finance director our goal has always been my goal has always been to try to see what savings we can make for the community because we understand how tough things are we're all living this community however we have to be realistic if you have a good education system our kids benefit the community benefits that brings people into this community increases our tax base it brings businesses into the community as someone who's invested into this community i'm telling you that's happened that is a huge draw which is in benefit to all of us um i would not support an increase by any means i would one of the reasons is i've heard and as i've been researching the board of ed and everything
039that's been going on we actually have a lottery this year for 10 students i believe to attend litchfield high school for 1 000 cheaper per student maybe i can see if i'm right on that and um so that kind of struck me to go to litchfield for for an even cheaper amount and i thought well then why would we we could go down if anything and i wouldn't say that but i wouldn't would not vote to increase and i would vote to save our money in the town thank you let me just respond to that as far as the litchfield that was an option for high school students to go there no one in winchester chose to take advantage of that because the transportation costs which probably is part of the reason why it was
040cheaper but the biggest issue is those are people coming from gilbert we don't have control on this board of the gilbert budget so what we pay for gilbert is dictated by gilbert so while leechfield might be a little cheaper we have no way of really getting the kids there the time of transportation is an issue we are interested in giving you know your choice as necessary but this isn't gilbert town and that's been the way it's been and you know we want to provide choices but we can't control gilbert's budget so what they bill us per student or in total is not within this board's power and control believe me i've been involved in those negotiations trying to fight for it for some control we don't have that there's legislation pending in the legislature in
041committee that hopefully would get some action we've asked j case to address it that has not that would give us some control but right now we can't control what our what our high school costs are are there any other rebuttals at this time we may now move on to the next question our next question is do you support the continued presence of the 7th and 8th graders at the gilbert school why or why not this question will be answered first by the democrats then the republicans and then the petitioning candidate you will now have one minute for discussion so okay so at this time where we're at with our um you know with our relationship with gilbert and current enrollment um we we would support we're it's it's going well here for the seventh and
042eighth graders so we would support keeping them here um you know and you don't foresee any any any uh changes in the near future with that is it costing more money to send the seventh and eighth graders to gilbert as seeing as we don't have a i don't say how this works i'm just curious sorry uh i would also support keeping them here that um just speaking from kids i know in the community everything seems to be going well with the ones that i've talked to being up here with the high schoolers and they've done a good job of keeping them separated where they can be and i haven't seen any problems yet with it in the in the community from the people i've talked to yes i would support it as well i don't
043see a need in disrupting something that's been successful i think that there's certainly good opportunities to be had at gilbert and so i again i don't i don't see the need to necessarily disrupt that particularly as you know relationships are improving are there any rebuttals at this time we may now move on to the next question do you support the current relationship between the winchester public schools and the gilbert school what would you like to see in the future this question will be answered first by the republicans petitioning candidate then the democrats you will now have one minute for discussion i think the relationship is seems to be as everybody on the board has said is growing stronger between gilbert and the winchester schools so it should continue sal suggested and i think it's a
044great idea that perhaps i don't know if the gilbert mr sugru can also attend the board of ed meetings we seem to hear a lot from melanie and that might give people more of an understanding of what is happening at gilbert if we want to continue to improve and strengthen the relationship between the two schools i remember driving up here first i have two students that went here that i taught and they did beautifully up here i remember driving up and looking at this campus and thinking what a gem it is for winstead it's beautiful it's almost like a college campus and so definitely we should continue to work collaboratively with gilbert the position in canada i i would continue to to support i feel like maybe i'm giving the same answer here to support
045the relationships um again i think there's going to be a um we'll probably be seeing a shift um in negotiations with a board turnover so i'll be interested to see what happens there but really i think at the heart of this again is the kids and we should be making decisions based on on the children in the community and students in the community as opposed to you know maybe what's best for for the adults so i do think that the winchester and gilbert system should be more collaborative they should be work together better and that's something that my board you know the winchester board has tried to do with the past administration gilbert but it wasn't very successful uh there was a history of inviting um the superintendent the administrators and anyone from gilbert can
046come because we've had members of the board come to our meetings there's nothing to prevent them from in fact we have as part of our agenda you know report on gilbert that the the four members from the winchester board who are on the gilbert board would report as to what's going on at the meetings the administrators currently of winchester and gilbert are working together to try to see if we can come to a budget this year that would be a nice i mean uh contract this year that would be a nice improvement we'll have to see how that works out um you know you know ongoing you know um professional development group wise i think renee's suggestion for pto and gilbert that we work together and have some joint meetings between the winchester pto would
047be a wonderful idea especially between pearson and gilbert so there's some continuity there um there's it's important that our systems work well together and i know that i've never been on one of the winchester board members to the gilbert board but i know from listening to the reports recently since the change administration there's a new there's a new attitude at the gilbert board right now and it feels the winchester board members who are on that board feel like they're being listened to like they matter and that everyone's working together and that needs to continue that's a wonderful way for us as a town to you know take care of our kids and make sure everyone's progressing continue the progress that we've been making that's what's important are there any rebuttals at this time we may
048now move on to the next question some believe that salaries paid to the superintendent principals and others are excessive for the town would you seek to lower the administrative costs of running the school system this question will be answered first by the petitioning democrats then republicans you may now have one minute discussion can you repeat it i just is it superintendents in the plural is it some believe that salaries paid to the superintendent principles and other are excessive for the town would you seek to lower the administrative costs of running the school system no i i will first i'd like to say that we really don't have any control over um how much the the superintendent is um or administration has paid at gilbert so that's kind of off the table i personally i don't
049think there should be an adjustment i think that our superintendent has earned you know is worth her weight in gold and worked collaboratively with with the board of selectmen um with the finance director and has actually brought in a lot of grants and been able to i would say certainly pay her own salary in that way i think she's done a wonderful job so i i would say that no i wouldn't necessarily be in favor of doing that so first of all the the salaries for winchester again can't speak to gilbert are based on contracts um that are ongoing and i will tell you that it's my understanding from reviewing the statistics that our administrators principals as well as superintendent are not being paid more than similar situated districts in fact we're kind of on
050the low end and we get a lot of bang for our buck for example when we had to open the oak street school because of cover distance and requirements melanie our superintendent became principal there and continued all her duties as the superintendent so she and we have the same thing happens with the different principles at bachelor and pearson they don't just fit a narrow definition of principle they do multiple other tasks including handling pd and again mel grant funding grant writing and everything so we are get a lot for what we pay and we don't pay on a high end so no i don't agree that it would be appropriate to support that they're overpay number one or that we should reduce the amount that they're being paid [Music] i would have to probably agree
051with that and also to add on that as a teacher i would imagine that teachers feel the same way that they would like to see an increase in pay and that would be an interesting conversation to have of how our teachers are paid here in the winchester public school system because i don't think they're commensurate to the state are there any rebuttals at this time we will now move on to the next question what is your opinion on remote learning do you believe i'm sorry oh sure what is your opinion on remote learning do you believe remote learning should be an option for students who are required to quarantine this question will be answered first by the democrats then the republicans then the petitioning candidate you will now have one minute for discussion do you
052believe remote learning should be an option for students who are required to quarantine so um you know as a teacher i've heard of a lot of um you know concerns with the remote learning and i've also heard some some some great things about it so um in terms of students who are quarantined um you know we feel that remote learning should should be something that is available to them so that way you know they continue to be able to use google classroom or something like that however um i think that it should be you know asynchronous which means the kids can kind of work on it whenever they need to like for example like especially the younger kids someone can't be there with them during the day time when school is is in session so
053maybe giving them more flexibility and having um you know learning happening you know in the evenings when parents come home they can they can jump on google classroom and do some assignments um so um that's the republicans thanks um well i would say that the alternative of a child being quarantined and not having any access to a classroom is not an option it's obviously not the most optimal way of learning as we saw last year and i was a part of this some of the parameters that were used for zooming classes is the student would check in and with their camera and then they could turn off their camera and who knew what they were doing while the class was being so i feel that there should be stronger parameters in terms of zooming for
054little children elementary kids i don't know that zooming classes is the most optimal way to do things having taught little children i think probably the best thing would do to do if they're going to be home for 10 days or however long the quarantine is is rather than zooming which can be difficult for little ones is to have the teacher prepare packets of work that they can do at home with the grandparent or their parent or whoever they're home with but yeah definitely for the older children they have to zoom they can't be out for 10 days or 14 days without any type of schooling i just have a stronger parameter of having to remain checked in with the camera i also believe that it should be allowed for for kids that are quarantining um
055i think that you know it's a it's certainly been a tool in the toolbox um and it's i don't think it's a secret that i think there were some bumpy roads i know as a parent um we had to try and navigate that at the beginning of all this and it was a little tricky but i do think it's critical to keeping kids connected um to the classroom connected to their teacher and you know helping to really support the relationship between uh you know the the child and their classroom um and uh you know i think nothing can replace being in the class for sure uh but i do i do think it's it it's proven that it's useful and it's it's helpful for keeping kids connected are there any rebuttals at this time we
056will now move on to the next question do you think this do you think students should be required to get the covet vaccine once it's fda approved this question will be answered first by the republicans then the petitioning candidate and the democrats you will now have one minute for discussion uh absolutely not the covet vaccine or any vaccine or any thing that you do medically is a choice between you and your parent and that's where it should remain and your doctor if need be and that's where it should remain the school should have no say in anything regarding a child's personal health thank you um i i don't think that we need to make this decision right now i'm gonna be perfectly honest with you um i believe in parent choice i do um but
057it this is an interesting question um just because um because we're not we're not really the boy as a board of education we're not given um the authority to mandate children uh having a vaccine you know as as far as like right now so i mean when we're looking at data um and i'm not a obviously a health professional i'm just a parent um but as we're looking at data it's and i i speak only for myself my my feelings have changed since the minute this started um depending on what information i'm getting um you know the efficacy of of the vaccines um you know it's it's minute by minute so uh no i don't think the board of education is gonna have to face um making a decision around a kid getting a vaccine
058to come to school um as far as right now uh but i do i at this point if we're talking about the covid vaccine you said um yeah i do think that's that's parent choice and i think that's why it's been so difficult for um the legislature to uh to make these decisions so um it's it's this is a you know this is a hot button topic so i would suggest that there's not one person in this auditorium who was not mandated to get vaccines in order to attend public school that has been the way it has been for decades and decades you know i remember being in kindergarten first grade in new jersey and we were taken by classroom through the gym lined up we all got the smart smallpox vaccine i have that
059mark on my arm our parents weren't there it wasn't a choice we all had to do it and that was to protect ourselves as well as everyone else the board of education for winchester public school will not be making a decision regarding vaccines that will be up to the health professionals and ultimately the legislature and the governor so what my opinion is as to whether it's appropriate or not is irrelevant it's not a board decision are there any rebuttals at this time i don't have a rebuttal but i do you know um again i mean i don't have a a solid answer on it um as of this moment um i don't know and and my feelings could change you know as uh as we find out more information um so you know i just
060wanted to it's again not a rebuttal but it's just a you know it's a tough question to answer tomorrow i do have a rebuttal um i would say that even though it might not be a board of ed i think it's important to know where we stand as candidates and we've seen in connecticut the religious exemption eliminated by the legislature in the last several months and they've also approved something called the hb6389 which allows schools to treat children for mental health issues substance abuse sexually transmitted diseases testing and treatment and reproductive health without a parent's permission and also parents have to pay for the bill through their insurance and i think we're seeing a slow erosion of parental rights whether it be from the masking to the vaccines to these two bills that that were
061passed and when uh it's a slippery slope let me say that it's a slippery slope and we're not asking for the state to be co-parenting with us parents should be able to make this choice thank you for the sign 30 seconds that's the person so parents do have a choice they have a choice at what school they what school they send their children to if you send your children to a particular school whether it's public or private they're going to have to follow the rules of that particular school whether the rules are established by the school as in a private institution or they're just established by the government as in a public school that's the way it is that's your choices and who you rep and who you elect to represent you okay i'm sorry
062i do have to read about that one too um it's not much of a choice to back a parent into a corner and say your child either takes this vaccine that we're determining is for children from who are have a very low rate of infection or you pull your child from school and you homeschool them you cannot say that to a single parent who is working you cannot say that to two parents who are working the state should not have a mandate as to these decisions and again this is not a decision for the board of head of the winchester yes but we should have our views known because i'll fight on that one are there any other rebuttals at this time we have completed our questions we will now depend on a good one
063we will now move on to closing statements first we have democrats followed by the petitioning candidate and then the republicans i just wanted to say that you know i thank everyone for coming out tonight thank you so much for for giving us the opportunity to do this it was um you know i think we were all a little bit nervous and um so but you know thank you for coming out it's nice to see you out there in the audience because that's what we're all about we're all about building those relationships so you know hopefully we can find some common ground and you know move on i'll echo with renee and thank you for being here it's been a pleasure to answer your questions i hope you've provided with a lot of information that you
064were seeking now we're running to be on the board for me to continue on the board to continue the progress that we've made in the school system which has benefited all of our children in this community as a product of public schools and five children who have been in public schools two of which are still it is important that we provide good education we provide a safe environment for our children a healthy nurturing environment and that's what we've been doing in winchester and i'm very proud of that petitioning keep forgetting order so i don't know if it's possible to climb out of that introduction hole that i dug from [Laughter] um so i apologize um but no i um you know i'd love to continue as well building on the progress um and you know
065that that has taken place um at wps i think it's an exciting time to be in a parent here um i'm so glad my daughter's in school here um i think it's uh it's exciting time to be a school board member i've really enjoyed um the past two years i really look forward um you know i would love another four years you know our new relationship with gilbert new new school being built you know and i really enjoy i think the one of the parts of the job that i um or the the role that i like so much is kind of being that conduit to the community and to the parents and to the school i love talking to the parents i love kind of hearing their concerns um or you know their praises
066for for what's being done um and i i really you know i love this town so i've in you know i am thankful for the guidance that i've gotten um really from the entire board from all parties um it's been a really supportive crew even when we disagree which certainly happens um but uh it's it's been a it's been a great learning experience and you know hopefully we can can balance fiscal responsibility with what the students need thank you this was a great evening i haven't been here since graduation night 2009 so this is really great for me to be back here really the reason i wanted to run again i'll echo is to really make a more open flow of information to the public the parents from the schools from the board of eds
067we everyone is knows what's going on in our schools i feel that's very important and paramount and to everyone that's here tonight thank you because you are getting involved and once we all get involved that is really the most important thing and i'm also just want to echo one more time that we think that parental choice in you being in charge of your own kid is paramount not just in the medical but also with anything in the curriculum as well so thank you for that yes and i too would like to echo it's great seeing people here the young people it's great that you're involved you're the hope for the future you guys will be sitting up here hopefully someday doing this too i just want to say that that we need both sides we
068need many multiple voices and many ideas to have the best outcomes and the best practices and so when it's top heavy on one side or the other you don't get the best outcome so i really appreciate being here and running for this board and this community and it is building community to have our children have the best type of education so thank you very much good evening my name is mariali sustace i'm a junior here at the gilbert school and a student in the civics class the class would like to thank all the candidates for participating in the audience for joining us tonight we would also like to thank stephen hodges and his video production class for filming and live streaming the debate additionally we would like to thank scott minerally's theatre tech class and
069students for providing the lighting and sound tonight we hope you found this debate as informative and beneficial as we have we also hope that this will give you a new perspective on the issues the winchester board of education is facing the class also encourages you to go out and vote for the candidates of your choice for the board of education on november 2nd we would also like to invite you to the board of selectmen debate next thursday at 7 pm thank you and have a good night [Applause]