LEWISTON — Ward 4 resident Kevin Boilard hopes to be elected to the Lewiston School Committee seat. The Kaydenz Kitchen Food Pantry operations manager hopes to serve his first term on the committee.

Community engagement: President of Kaydenz Kitchen Food Pantry, Healthy Neighborhoods board of directors

How would you manage the school budget? Allocate more funds to schools or pull back spending? Why?

I don’t believe we should be requesting additional funding for the school budget from our local taxpayers until we have aggressively reviewed all opportunities to ensure current funds are being used to a maximum efficiency. We need to make sure our current funding is being spent efficiently and address any excess costs or inefficiencies in the current budget. Our school budget continues to increase, while our schools continue to face increased education challenges year after year.

Do you believe student safety is a priority and would you support initiatives that address safety issues?

I strongly believe student safety needs to be one of the most important priorities in our schools and that all students should have a sense of being in a safe place while trying to maximize their education experience. An education environment that is unsafe or feels unsafe can have a significant impact on a child’s success and ability to maximize their education opportunities. We have a responsibility to our schools to have policies in place that promote a safe environment for everyone. I fully support reviewing any new initiatives that address safety issues in our schools.

Do you believe students’ social and emotional needs are being met in schools? What could be done differently?

I believe our schools have created an environment that helps support our students’ social and emotional needs and that our teachers are continuing to play a much larger role in that. For an ideal learning environment, the social and emotional needs of our children must also be met outside school to allow our teachers a chance to maximize the educational experience. It has been shown that promoting social and emotional development for students in classrooms involves modeling social and emotional skills, providing opportunities for students to practice those skills and giving students the opportunity to apply those skills in life.

Do you believe parents and community members have adequate access to the committee members at meetings or through other methods to express concerns and frustrations?

I believe there is adequate access to committee members for parents and community members but I also believe adequate access isn’t enough and we can do better at improving the communication channels that are available to increase dialogue between all parties. School Committee meetings can be an intimidating environment for open dialogue or to address any open concerns for some individuals. We need to make sure there are multiple communication chains available to proactively promote that dialogue.

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