CORRECTED: Letter to the Community - SC Candidate Leo Brehm

Dear Medfield Citizens,

It has been my honor to serve as your Medfield School Committee representative for the past three years, and I would be humbled to once again serve as your representative. While 2020 brought unexpected challenges to all of our lives, if you re-elect me, I promise to keep our entire community in my heart when I make my decisions.

I am proud of what I have accomplished in this term in office, and as promised, I used my core values to guide my position on issues.

I believe:

• Smaller class sizes create a more personalized learning experience.
• Student-centered decision-making should be at the core of every policy.
• Teachers are the heart and soul of our learning community.
• Diligent budgeting practices should include responsible long-term civic planning.
• Education should be inclusive and equitable for all.

Having spent my entire career in public education as an educator, an administrator, and now as an educational technology innovator, I know the many moving pieces involved in managing a public school district. I am motivated to continue my role on the Medfield School Committee because, as the son and husband of public school teachers, I support public education 100%. Additionally, as an Eagle Scout, I consider volunteering a civic responsibility.

In 2018, I was motivated, in part, to serve on the Medfield School Committee when Medfield’s elementary class sizes began growing, and my two young children were directly affected by this problem. While I have served, I have seen to it that class sizes have not grown. Although I would still like to see them smaller, I have since learned that this is a facilities issue because the elementary school buildings are too small. Consequently, I volunteered to serve on the Dale Street Building Project Committee, which I hope will lead to a beautiful school building for our community that will last for more than fifty years. When I saw a need for curriculum organization, I advocated for a more robust and organized curriculum and the Director of Curriculum position. While this past year has created monumental new and unforeseen challenges, I stand by my decisions and the accomplishments we have made for Medfield’s entire learning community during my term.

I believe we must come together as a community and treat each other with respect. The pandemic is not the only issue in education right now. However, at the moment, it is the largest pressing one, and this upcoming year may present pandemic-related budget challenges that I have the experience to handle. I feel confident that I have acted honestly and in good faith to ensure everyone’s safety in our community. Although this has been a challenging year for families and I acknowledge that, with the coming of spring and vaccines, we will adjust our learning model accordingly.

I hope this message finds you safe and well, and I appreciate your support and vote on March 29th.

Sincerely,

Leo Brehm, 249 South Street, Medfield

Learn more at my information session on March 16th on Zoom at: http://bit.ly/schooltalkwithleo

More about me:

I am a father of two children, an eight-year-old entering third grade at Wheelock School and a ten-year-old entering fifth grade at Dale Street School.

I am a soccer coach with Medfield Youth Soccer.

My wife is a social studies teacher at Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts.

I spent 22 years as an educator in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I have worked as an Instructional Technology Specialist, Digital Learning Coach, Network Administrator, Director of Technology, and Chief Information/Technology Officer.

Most of my career was spent in various administrative roles within the Sharon and Newton Public Schools. In this time I:

• Developed school budgets of up to $200 million
• Managed departmental budgets of $9+million
• Oversaw ten school building projects, five with the MSBA
• Licensed Massachusetts, Superintendent, Director, and Instructional Technology Specialist
• Organized efforts to support learning with community organizations and private partners

More recently, I have worked for CatchOn Incorporated, a company I co-founded. I also own Creativemindz Consulting Group, which provides educational technology services for districts and schools throughout the Commonwealth.

I serve on the K12-Chief Technology Officers Advisory Committee for the IMS Global Learning Consortium; the Board of Directors for The Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning and Creativity; and the Board of Directors for SustainEd. For several years, I served on the Mass Computer Using Educators (MassCUE) Board of Directors and was also President and Treasurer.

I have an Ed.M. in Instructional Technology, and I have doctoral coursework toward an Ed.D in Education Leadership from Northeastern University. I am passionate and dedicated to the advancement of learning through a schooling model that is both student-centered and personalized.