I’m sure you’ve noticed the signs – dotting our yards in red and blue. You’ve also likely received an email, or four, from bright-eyed, optimistic candidates promising to improve our schools with their experience and passion. As the weather finally turns warm, there is a real race unfolding for the Dover spots on both the Dover School Committee and the Dover Sherborn Regional School Committees. If you’re thinking to yourself, that you don’t remember this many signs and impassioned pleas in the past, you are correct. This is the first time in recent Dover history that there has been this many candidates vying for these positions.
School committee positions are difficult, unpaid, time-consuming, and subject the members to all manner of public complaint. Generally, it is difficult to find people to fill these crucial roles, and they usually get filled by the current school committee finding and asking, possibly convincing, another parent to step up. In many cases, it’s the parent of a high schooler that runs for these positions. By this stage, the kids are fairly self-sufficient. There’s not the extra burden of finding a sitter to attend meetings or the anxiety of leaving a young child that does not cooperate if anyone other than you tries to put them to bed. As a result, these candidates of older children generally run unopposed, without a real need to campaign.
So what makes this year different? Why so many Facebook requests asking for your support, and incumbents unwilling to relinquish from their posts? Like every school in our nation, the Dover schools are facing unprecedented challenges. COVID changed the way our children learn faster than any event in our lifetimes. Our current remote learning relies on heavy parent involvement, and has required our teachers and administrators to upend their years of careful planning, and to learn new skills – fast. The coming years will see a new framework for education created, tested, revised – and all with our children as the test subjects. We must adapt to the challenges of our changing world while affording our children the ability to meet their educational and emotional needs. Parents are stepping forward because it is an important time to do so.
For the first time in a long time, many parents are asking the difficult questions and fighting for the privilege to make educated and well-researched decisions for our schools, our children, and our community.
This may seem hectic. It’s certainly more confusing to decipher the varied candidates, rather than filling in the box for one lone candidate. But rest assured – this is a very good news. Competition and passion are extremely useful tools – they fuel advancement and ensure accountability. Fresh ideas are paramount to our success as a school system, and a town.
In particular, this year shows a record number of elementary school parents stepping up to the challenge, vying for roles generally reserved for the parents of middle or high schoolers. This is also good. Representation matters – in both directions.
This competition does not exist in a vacuum. It is indicative of a bigger trend in our schools, as evidenced by school committee meetings in 2019 and 2020 and the flood of emails to the superintendent and current committee – both arguably at an all-time high. This too is good news for our town. Community attention, opinions, and involvement will make our schools and town stronger.
Reach out to these candidates. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Take an interest, and don’t be afraid to offer your support. We need strong leaders now more than ever that embrace collaboration, innovation and inclusion. And most of all – let’s make sure we all exercise our right to vote.
The Town Election will take place on June 15th, and the town is also encouraging residents to vote by mail, to ensure proper social distancing. More information on applying for an absentee ballot can be found at http://doverma.org/
Good luck and happy voting! It is a privilege and an honor.
- Rui Huang, Lulu Fan, and Carissa Haydon
