Why I'm running
Why I'm running...
Contrary to the belief of many I have not ALWAYS wanted to run for public office. I'm a lifelong resident of Fall River who was happy to serve through my community service work. I have always been involved in local and national politics and have worked on many campaigns in our community as well as others. I was content with those contributions because they allowed me to assist Fall River while still allowing me time to raise my 2 girls.
However I recently felt a call to action....When I became aware that many current members would not be running again and only a few people had pulled papers, I felt the need to act. Fall River deserves choices! We deserve a diverse list of candidates. I understand that the political landscape can be daunting at times. Often personal attacks take place instead of kind educated discussions of our differences in opinion. As a result many are rightly hesitant to run. I applaud all those who serve and those who have served in the past. Their contributions were important to our school system.
It's critical that we take the role of a school committee member seriously. I do! When we put children first, we need to examine the needs of ALL the children in our community. They are our next public leaders, fire fighters, police, teachers, DPW workers, social workers, nurses and such. They are our future! Putting the education of our children first puts our community first!
I'm currently at a place in my life where my children are older and therefore I have the time to give 100% when elected. And, that is exactly what I plan on doing! Our youth are critical to our future. They deserve people who will advocate for them with passion and that is certainly what I bring to the table. Please take a minute to look through this page and understand the issues that are close to my heart. Also, feel free to reach out with any questions. I look forward to engaging with community members for thoughts, ideas, and concerns. I look forward to having the ability to serve YOU!
-Shelli
My top issues
1. Attendance
In my opinion, one of the most important goals is getting ALL our students to school ready to learn. A continued focus on absentee rates is critical. If you do not show up, you learn nothing and you fall behind which is discouraging to scholars. Working with classroom size, educators, guidance staff and community resources is necessary to achieve better attendance.
An understanding that there are many issues families face which impact school attendance is of the utmost importance. As a school department we must have a focus on driving up attendance rates by dealing with the barriers that face children and their families. “No seat should be left empty” should be a goal we always reach for in our community.
2. Building Safety and Maintenance
We should always be diligent in focusing on the actual school environment. Numerous studies will tell us that schools that are clean and safe provide a community with children who are more eager to learn. As a school department we should seek nothing less than classrooms that help to prepare our students for learning.
Our physical environment does play a role in our ability to focus and tackle academics. I am sure some have had to work in environments that were less than desirable. This takes a toll on productivity. Our students deserve the best we can offer. A focus on school safety and building maintenance should always be a priority if we are putting “Children First”.
3. Botvin Life Skills Training
Unfortunately, we live in a world where addiction disease is still a large problem. It’s critical we start early in education to provide children with self-esteem, confidence, and self-awareness because these skills have been proven to help with good decision making. I think it’s important to also understand that unfortunately many children have lived/live in homes where drug abuse was prevalent so healthy choices were never taught. The only place for these children to learn these skills is in our schools.
“Just Say No” to drugs didn’t work. Simply telling a child to say no is not effective. And DARE although with the best of intentions has not been proven to be that effective either. But there are programs out there that HAVE been proven to work. Botvin LifeSkills Training is one of those. When Botvin LifeSkills Training in incorporated in schools the results are amazing. They show a drug use cut by 75%, alcohol use cut by 60% and tobacco use cut by 87%! These are proven numbers. The course incorporates skills needed to develop good decision making including the self-esteem and confidence to say no!
The program is affordable and they train educators to facilitate these lessons which start in elementary school. I would love to see Fall River investigate training our teachers to be able to facilitate Botvin LifeSkills. The foundation of good decision making starts early and the longer we wait to incorporate these skills could be detrimental to our children. Putting children first means we must have a focus on doing the best we can to keep them safe from the disease of addiction.
4. Art Education
Emily Workman an independent consultant for education policy P-12 and a former director of Education Commission of the States, states that creative thinking skills due to art education produces individuals who are better problem solvers, communicators, and collaborators. They also have better techniques in adapting to different ways of thinking. This must be why a study showed that up to 78% of employers agree that creativity is important and are part of their hiring practices.
Art education in children encourages cognitive development in their brains. This helps with decision making, problem solving, attention to detail and the ability to critically evaluate their own work. These are critical life skills not time wasted.
Art education also aids in motor skills in a way that is fun for children, learning how to hold a paint brush correctly or even something as simple as holding a crayon and coloring in the lines provides development of fine motor skills. Whereas the art of dance helps develop gross motor skills. Art education can even help with math skills when we are talking about looking at things like size, shape, and spatial reasoning.
Maybe most importantly art education research shows that it teaches young children to think for themselves. And let’s not forget art forms such as music and writing can be used as therapy. So, art education is never a waste of time and should receive sufficient funding to provide our children with the best art teachers. Without sufficient art education fewer students will understand their own potential. Encouraging and expanded art education is putting children first.