North Andover Town Election: Joe Hicks Candidate Announcement

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — Joe Hicks is running for a seat on the School Committee in the March 30 town election.

A teacher at Salem High School, Hicks is one of five candidates who have taken out papers to run for two open seats on the committee. He faces incumbent Andrew McDevitt as well as Rebecca Stronck, Pamela Pietrowski and Dave Brown.

Feb. 9 was the last day for candidates to submit nomination papers. As of Feb. 16, 10 candidates have taken out papers across all open seats.

Hicks submitted the following candidate announcement to Patch for publication:

Talking about the need to create better schools, Joe Hicks announced his decision to seek a seat on the School Committee in the upcoming North Andover Town Election.

“We must be better,” said Hicks who believes it is evident we can and should be better. “The pandemic has not only created problems in our school system, it has also exposed things that we need to examine and fix,” observed the parent of Atkinson school students.

Joe came to North Andover with his family a decade ago in large part because of its school system. “We chose North Andover because we wanted to raise our family and be a part of a tight-knit community while sending our kids to great public schools.” Joe lives in the Library District with his husband, Stuart, and their twin 3rd graders.

“I love this town, and the core values of the school system, especially the RAISE values,” Hicks explains. “My kids have had great and caring teachers, especially in these challenging COVID times. All of our students deserve access to a top-notch education that prepares them to be capable adults who think, communicate, and act with respect and empathy.”

Joe believes that the North Andover school system has a great foundation but could benefit from key improvements. “We must be better for our children,” stated Hicks, “better at ensuring that all students have the resources they need to be successful, better at equipping our facilities to support 21st century learning expectations, better at planning and communicating with families, better at asking questions, and better at holding our leaders accountable.”

Joe is a Social Studies Instructional Coach at Salem High School with previous experience at Lawrence High School. He was a founding member of New Haven Academy where he served as the Assistant Program Director. After earning his B.A. at Holy Cross, Joe volunteered in the AmeriCorps NCCC program. He earned his Master of Arts in Teaching at Quinnipiac University. In his current role, he works with teachers to improve their craft. He also works to develop curriculum and other support materials to help teachers work towards equity and access for all students.

“My work depends on me being a good listener and forming trusting relationships with multiple stakeholders. To raise student achievement, we need to work alongside teachers as partners. We also need to make sure that our schools’ mission and vision drive the policies that we create and implement,” noted the first-time candidate.

“As a teacher, my job is to prepare students for what comes next, whether it be the next lesson, course, or life after high school. As a parent, I want to prepare our schools for what comes next by having an active voice in the School Committee’s planning process and make better our ability to plan and execute on the needs of our students and community,” promised Hicks.

Joe has served as the co-treasurer on the Atkinson PTO for the past two years and was an assistant swim coach at the Andover North Andover YMCA. He loves attending his children’s baseball games “where I listen to expectations for our schools from parents and grandparents expressing their strong desire that as good as we are, we can do better,” emphasized the prospective school committee member.

Joe is running for one of two seats on the School Committee in the annual Town Elections on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

This announcement was produced by Joe Hicks. The views expressed are the author's own.