About Paul

Paul Schlichtman & Rieko Tanaka

Paul Schlichtman with his nomination papers - December, 2022.

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Paul Schlichtman is a third-generation educator, whose professional experience informs his work as a school committee member.

Before entering the teaching profession, he worked as a reporter and editor for weekly newspapers in Suffolk & Nassau Counties (Long Island) and Brooklyn, New York. He developed a deep interest in education policy while covering several local school boards.

Paul worked as a high school mathematics teacher and as a gifted and talented teacher in New Jersey, before moving to Massachusetts in order to study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Subsequently, he worked as an elementary teacher and administrator in Boston, and as a district-level administrator and elementary principal in Lowell.

Within a year of moving to Arlington, Paul's interest in public policy led him to a seat in our Representative Town Meeting. Moderator John L. Worden III appointed Paul to serve as Arlington's representative to the Minuteman Regional School Committee in 1997.

Paul won a seat on the Arlington School Committee in 2001, and was re-elected in 2004. He did not run for re-election in 2007. When Joseph A. Curro, Jr. moved to the Select Board in 2012, the school committee appointed Paul to fill his seat. After winning election to the unexpired term in 2013, Paul was re-elected to the Arlington School Committee in 2014, 2017, and 2020.

Paul was elected to leadership roles in the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), where he served as President-Elect (2003), President (2004), and Immediate Past President (2005). While serving as an officer for MASC, he also served as a member of the Massachusetts Local Government Advisory Commission.
Paul was elected to the Arlington Democratic Town Committee in 2000, and re-elected in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016. After serving for 20 years as an elected member, he became a life member in 2020.
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In 2006, Paul married Rieko Tanaka, a classically trained pianist. She became a U.S. Citizen in 2017. They both serve as Town Meeting Members representing Precinct 9.

EDUCATION

• • B.S., City University of New York
  ​ (Double major - Elementary Education & Psychology)
  
• • 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

EXPERIENCE

• 30 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, April 1, 2017, and June 8, 2020.)
• Minuteman Regional Technical Vocational School Committee - Member (1997-2001)
• Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC)- President (2004)
  President-Elect (2003), Immediate Past President (2005)
• Arlington Town Meeting - Representative TMM (1993-2003, 2006-2025)
  ​(Re-elected to a three-year term on April 2, 2022)
• Member, Massachusetts Local Government Advisory Commission (2003-2005)
• Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, School & District Accountability & Assistance Advisory Council, MASC. Representative (2015-2021)

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