Arlington Advocate Weekly Questions:

Question 1. (Published February 27)   Why do you feel like you are the best candidate to be on the School Committee?

I view successful school committee service as contributing to a governing team, where nothing can be achieved without a majority vote. My skills and experience in public school and municipal governance enables me to be an effective contributor to the team.

I served four years on the Minuteman School Committee, and 14 years on the Arlington School Committee. I have served in Town Meeting for 24 years

I have also played a statewide leadership role in public school governance, having served as President of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees in 2004.

I also bring the perspective of a professional educator who has worked primarily in urban districts. I have been an elementary teacher, a high school math teacher, a principal, and a central office administrator. My bachelor’s degree is from the City University of New York, and I earned my master’s and C.A.S. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

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Question 2. (Published March 5)  The new Arlington High School project is going to be a major aspect of Arlington Public Schools over the next few years. Is there any part of the project you have a particular concern about or that you would like to focus on? 

The school committee doesn’t oversee the building project; that is the responsibility of the building committee established by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. I don’t have any particular concerns, as I have confidence in the building committee’s ability to manage the project. The members include folks with an understanding of what we need in a successful high school, as well as others with prior experience in completing successful town building projects.

For the school committee, we will need to focus on the experiences our students have while attending school adjacent to a construction site. We must make sure the high school is sufficiently resourced to provide a safe environment conducive to learning. We will rely on the superintendent and high school principal, who serve on the building committee, to keep the high school community informed about how we must work around the construction activity.

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Question 3. (Published March 12)  Last year the School Committee mentioned that they would like to increase the diversity of its teaching staff. Do you think teaching diversity is important to APS? Why?

Twelve years ago, the student population in Arlington included 20% children of color; now it’s 30%. We understand our community is becoming more racially diverse, even as we are becoming less economically diverse.

We need to strive to employ educators who reflect our student population, for obvious reasons. Research shows that students have a better school experience when they attend schools with teachers who look like them. Less obvious, but equally important, is that our students are preparing for a life in a global society.

Checks can be mailed to the Committee to Elect Paul Schlichtman
Kim Haase, Treasurer
88 Park Avenue, apartment 401
Arlington, MA 02476
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Paul Schlichtman is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC). Attracting educators of color is not just an Arlington problem: it is a challenge faced by every district in the state. That’s why Paul authored a resolution that was adopted by the MASC delegate assembly in 2019 to advocate for the elimination of the state’s teacher testing program. The tests are expensive (the applicant pays the fee to Pearson), and don’t provide a valid measure of teaching ability. They are a barrier for out-of-state educators who might consider working in Massachusetts.

Paul Schlichtman is a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s School & District Accountability & Assistance Advisory Council. He spent the past 20 years analyzing school and district performance and accountability data to help principals and teachers to understand the levers of change that improve their schools.
He understands that measures like the MCAS are just indicators that inform our work, not desired outcomes that drive our decisions. Too much emphasis on MCAS and accountability scores takes time and resources away from art, music, world languages, social studies, social-emotional learning, and other essentials not tested by the state.


Looking for a data-informed school committee member? Paul built this interactive map and documented the enrollment growth in Arlington to support the 2019 operating override and high school project. Here's the map that shows a six year increase of 1,036 students; the 21.13% increase is the largest of any municipality with a student population over 100 children.

• Fact checking the debate.
• Why we shouldn't strive for a 90% accountability score.
• A 51% accountability score (for students with disabilities) isn't shocking. It indicates we're making substantial progress toward state targets. 
• Not 5%. Not 2.6%. There's no statistical difference in Asian-White suspension rates in Arlington.
  

Keep in touch with Town of Arlington COVID-19 updates here. During the COVID-19 emergency, the Secretary of the Commonwealth advises that no-excuse early voting is available now.•Download the application here, and return it to the Town Clerk's office, Arlington Town Hall
730 Massachusetts Avenue
Arlington MA 02476.
Fax: 781-316-3079
Email: jweber@town.arlington.ma.us

"The Arlington Public Schools will ensure that every graduate is prepared to enter and complete a post-secondary degree program, pursue a career, and be an active citizen in an ever-changing world by offering a rigorous, comprehensive, standards-based and data-driven K-12 system of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that integrates social, emotional and wellness support."
Overarching Goal 1 - Arlington Public Schools (Adopted September 27, 2012)

• B.S., City University of New York
• Ed. M. Harvard University Graduate School of Education
• C.A.S., Harvard University Graduate School of Education
• Completed National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) Executive Development Program & Massachusetts District Governance Leadership Program
• 27 years of volunteer service for the Town of Arlington.
• 37 years of professional experience as a public school teacher and administrator.

Arlington School Committee - Member (2001-2007 & 2012-2023), Chair (2004-2005 & 2015-2016)
(Appointed to fill the unexpired term of Joseph A. Curro, Jr. on May 3, 2012, and elected to fill the remainder of the term on April 4, 2012; re-elected on April 5, 2014 and April 1, 2017.)
Please visit Paul's school committee blog.

Minuteman Regional Technical Vocational School Committee - Member (1997-2001)
 
Massachusetts Association of School Committees - President (2004)
President-Elect (2003), Immediate Past President (2005)

Arlington Town Meeting - Representative TMM (1993-2003, 2006-2021)
(Re-elected to a three-year term on April 7, 2018)

Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, School & District Accountability & Assistance Advisory Council, M.A.S.C. Representative (2015-2021)

Did you know?
• The Arlington Public Schools enrolls 6,047 students (October 1, 2019). Our students are 70.5% white, 13.0% Asian, 6.1% Hispanic, 3.4% African-American, 6.8% multiracial. 12.7% of our students have a first language that is not English, and 4.8% are classified as English Language Learners.
• 100% of Arlington high school graduates complete the MassCore curriculum.
• 99.8% of Arlington's core academic classes are taught by highly qualified teachers.
• Arlington's per pupil spending of $14,594 (2018) is $1,901 less than the state average of $16,495
• Arlington's education spending as a percentage of total municipal expenditures (2018) is 46.3%, below the state average of 49.4%.

Arlington is a diverse, fiscally prudent, high-achieving district.

For "higher academic standards, transparent hiring protocols, and strict accountability measures... Paul Schlichtman... the best chance for a cleansing breath of fresh air." Lowell Sun, June 25, 2013.

2020 Virtual Campaign Kick-Off

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Paul Schlichtman • 47 Mystic Street - 8C • Arlington MA 02474 • 781.641.3401
©2014 The Committee to Elect Paul Schlichtman

Last update Friday, May 15, 2020
paul@schlichtman.org