Candidate Profile: MJ Byrnes For Wilmington School Committee

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington will have two contested races in the April 24 town election: one for a two-year seat on the School Committee and one for two three-year seats. Wilmington Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and is publishing candidate profiles.

Mary Jane Byrnes is running for re-election to a full term on the School Committee. There are three people running for two available three-year seats. Byrnes faces fellow incumbent David Ragsdale and challenger James DeFeo.

Byrnes works at Mass General and has been on the School Committee since 2012.

Are you running for office in Wilmington? Contact Christopher Huffaker at chris.huffaker@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Wilmington Patch.

Mary Jane Byrnes

Age (as of Election Day)

55

Position Sought

School Committee

Family

Husband Joe, son Conor, daughter Erika, step-daughters Natalia and Isis and granddaughter Leila.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

My husband is a police sergeant. My brother is a retired lieutenant with Connecticut State Police. I have a brother who is a federal administrative judge and two sisters who work for public school systems in Massachusetts.

Education

BFA in photography from Mass College of Art and Design.

Occupation

Senior administrative assistant for an internal medicine practice at Mass General.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

School Committee since 2012. Workforce member of a workgroup with the department of early education and previous to that served as a cochair for a PAC within Wilmington Public Schools.

Campaign website

Mary Jane Byrnes For School Committee on Facebook

Why are you seeking elective office?

I still feel that I have a job to do, more so now than ever. I feel that as the senior committee member, I have a good command of the historical and present hurdles that our public schools face. I'm passionate with regards to the topics I've continued to advocate and fight for our district, such as appropriate state funding for public school, circuit-breaker funding, per-pupil funding and topics of that sort.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I honestly don't feel that there's only one. But some of the most important things before us now are a smooth transition to in-person learning and sustaining that as we see variants bring up the covid positive cases. The other issue is securing and going ahead with new schools and the consolidation of our schools. Those would probably be the most pressing aspects besides the financial aspect.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

One of the differences is my longevity in my seat, seeing the evolution of education in our district. My experience in advocating within the school committee association as well as the state level for those aspects that truly impact our district and our kids. Education and knowledge as to how policy at the state level and the local level impacts our schools.

My experience and familiarity with other colleagues within the Commonwealth gives me a balanced approach as to how I can bring things into our district, what that looks like, and working collaboratively with the board and the district leadership team. Being accessible to constituents of all walks of life. I'm well acquainted with a number of wonderful residents.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

At the town level, as frustrating as it could be, I think they did a really good job, especially in trying to obtain contact tracing of residents and pushing safety precautions as it pertains to the CDC recommendations. At the district level, they did yeomen's work with regards to the lack of leadership and guidance at the state level from the dept of ed.

I'm very disappointed with regards to the state which left districts writing their own playbooks. I've witnessed at our own district the amount of work that continues to go on to serve and protect students and staff by our administrators. They've taken it to a new level that I don't think the public has the opportunity to see, which needs to be recognized. Every decision affects every other decision.

The leadership at the state level was a detriment in providing a structure for districts to create their own guidebooks. Districts were left to themselves. Our leadership team has done a fantastic job. Has it been perfect, no, but the intent and the passion to do right by our families was unquestionably and most certainly there.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Besides advocating for more financial resources for public schools, I think advocating for funding that goes directly to social-emotional learning, programming and assessments is huge. It's going to define our work for several years. I don't think the impact on mental health and learning on our students should be underestimated. That's something we need to factor in more than ever.

It can't be lost that our staff as well have been impacted significantly. Recent surveys from the district show the fear that is still felt and needs to be considered. It can't be minimized. We need to deliver support to our students and to our staff who have been significantly impacted by this pandemic as we progress as a district to bring back the delivery of top-notch education.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

In my first term, with the assistance of Rep. Ken Gordon, Sen. Bruce Tarr, Rep. Jim Micelli, the superintendent and other school committee members, met with Mitchell Chester who was the commissioner off DESE at the time, to discuss PARCC and it not being the right tool of assessment for our students. We met at DESE headquarters in Malden.

I wrote several letter campaigns to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Seth Moulton and our state legislators with regards to school safety and implementation of ALICE and the like after school shootings that took place in Newtown.

I continued to advocate for underfunded and unfunded mandates — per-pupil spending, circuit breaker funding. The state representatives have successfully brought in more Chapter 70 funding for our community. I've sat on several contract negotiation committees that have all been successful and am currently sitting on the teachers' contracts committee which I hope will have the same result.

I've gone through two superintendent hirings.

I was recently in 2019 awarded MASC all-state school committee award, nominated by a colleague in another district and I was recognized on the Senate floor for my work in my seat on behalf of the children of Wilmington.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

My whole term has been full of guidance and advice and mentorship. So much has been given to me from my father, who was also very civic.

I think the first sage advice I was given by the previous superintendent was, "Don't be a one-note school committee member. Don't have an agenda on which you can only speak on and nothing else."

From that, she encouraged me to take broader pathways in order to be a stronger school committee member and to be able to lend my voice in a way that would contribute to all of the districts at every level.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

As being the longest-seated member, my passion, my resiliency and my tenaciousness are apparent. I welcome feedback as long as it's constructive with regard to the issues that impact our schools and our kids, which allows me to have a broader understanding of the impacts of the issues that are under our purview.

I do feel strongly that as we face the next step to our schools of getting on the rails of learning, we need to come together in collaboration. We still need our families, our parents and our stakeholders to come together to see good results and positive outcomes for our kids. Fewer conversations should take place on Facebook and more outreach should go through our district emails or phone calls.

I don't shy away from difficult conversations, I see them as a way of working with our parents and other stakeholders. I'm someone who can agree to disagree but I will listen to all perspectives. There's learning that takes part, so I welcome it. The children of this community are my first and top priority, getting them the education they deserve and reaching the potential that they have is essential.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.