School Committee Candidates Q&A: Better Preparing Students For College and Life

(Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a three-part Q&A with candidates for Tewksbury School Committee -- incumbent Krissy Polimeno and challengers Lisa Puccia and Ray Lisiecki.)

Question 2: What are some ways you would like to see Tewksbury schools better prepare students for college and/or the work place? 

Lisa Puccia

I believe that this process needs to begin at the elementary school level starting as early as Kindergarten.  Tewksbury Public Schools needs to start looking at implementing STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math) earlier on into our student’s curriculum to better prepare them for future endeavors.  Professional development for our teachers is also key factor in this process.  We need to question whether or not we start partnering with local colleges and universities to provide professional development to our staff so that they may be able to enrich their own classroom teaching.  Exposing our students earlier on in their educational careers will be better prepare them once they enter our high school and continue on to other post secondary opportunities.

Another option that we may want to consider, at the high school level, would be to introduce a Career Readiness curriculum which would also align with the PARCC assessments when it’s introduced into our schools in 2015.  A few districts have already started introducing this type of concept into their schools and are already seeing results.

Ray Lisiecki

I think we should strengthen the foundation with Full Day kindergarten and explore ways to offer an advanced course track in the Ryan and Wynn Schools, similar to the idea of AP courses in the High School.

Krissy Polimeno

We need to continue to examine the best practices and strategies for raising student achievement which includes purposeful instruction, assessment and staff development. 
We must combine different approaches to provide the best possible level of educational services for all Tewksbury students.  In the future, we will explore the opportunity to develop new partnerships between classrooms and businesses as well as expanding our academic course offerings.