LEWISTON — Governor’s Restaurant and Bakery office manager and Ward 4 resident Matthew Agren, 52, is running for the at-large School Committee seat.

Community engagement:

Lewiston Board of Appeals, Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine, Little Library at Lewiston’s Governor’s Restaurant and Bakery

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

Next year’s budget is going be extra challenging because of the previous budget, which was heavily supplemented by pandemic relief funds that we will no longer be receiving. While a large part of our current budget is directly tied to unfunded mandates from the state that require city funding, I will hold the line at the current budget level, as the growing burden on taxpayers is of great concern.

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

Absolutely. We must ensure, without excuses or exceptions, that schools provide a consistently safe and stable learning environment for all students regardless of race, religion, gender, economic or social status and social or political views. Students must be held responsible for abiding by rules and must be taught the importance of accountability.

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

Since the pandemic, students’ social and emotional needs have both increased and have not been fully addressed. Students lost connections to friends and the school system while learning remotely. These losses were more pronounced for students from marginalized groups, which include many of our students in Lewiston.

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 think parents and community members must continue to have access to livestreamed meetings. At the Sept. 25 meeting, it was suggested that the livestream be discontinued, which is an unnecessary barrier to access. Viewing a cleaned up and edited version of any meeting after the fact would be a disservice to Lewiston residents. There is no reason the public should be prevented from knowing what is going on in a meeting if they are unable to attend in person. One of the main reasons I decided to run is to make sure the public is better informed on School Committee matters, as some of the recent events at committee meetings are very concerning.

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