When I began my teaching career, my dream was to come back and teach in the amazing district I grew up in—and here I am! Teaching in NPS for the past 14 years has been wonderful in so many ways. And yet there have been challenges.

As both a parent of a first grader at Lincoln-Eliot as well as a teacher in Newton, our family life is impacted daily by the decisions and leadership of the Newton School Committee. The lack of communication, trust, and true collaboration over the last several years has been difficult. It’s been far too long since we’ve had representatives with true classroom/education experience on the school committee—people who truly understand what students and their teachers live through on a daily basis, and how the decisions made at the administrative level impact the classroom.

In this year’s School Committee election, I hope voters will join me in voting for Jenna Miara, Mali Brodt, Jim Murphy, and Christine Fisher. I want this incredible district that raised me to continue to do right by its students, and this can only happen if we have School Committee members with relevant experience who will look beyond statistics and data and also consider the actual human beings in our school community.

I’ve watched so many challenges stem from the School Committee not truly understanding what happens in the classroom—if we want to continue to move our district forward, we need to elect people who do.

Elana Cutler (Rome)
Nonantum