ABCDEF
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Name of Candidate: Guillermo HamlinEmily AckmanLee Erica PalmerLaura PitoneCarrie Normand
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What office are you seeking?School CommitteeSchool committeeSchool CommitteeSchool CommitteeSchool Committee
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Ward11357
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Email Address:gshamlin89@gmail.comemilyackmanforward1@gmail.comleeericapalmer@gmail.comlaurapitoneward5@gmail.comcarrienormand7@gmail.com
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Phone Number:857-600-145161750178607813301740617-803-7734 617-645-0429
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Will you accept campaign contributions from for-profit developers and those closely associated with for-profit developers (their lawyers/family members)?NoNoNoThank you for this opportunity to share my priorities as a candidate for Ward 5 School Committee. In an effort to best inform ORS, I have answered questions that I had the knowledge and experience to address as a candidate for and as a current member of the Somerville School Committee. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the School Committee. Thank you for including me in your candidate questionnaire. Urban education is complex. I have included my expanded answers to the questions regarding schools. I share many of your same concerns, but am not willing to take a simple “yes or no” stance on subjects I haven’t fully educated myself on and/or are beyond my jurisdiction on the School Committee. I take pride in the broad support I have earned both in Ward Seven and across Somerville. I am not beholden to any special interest group
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Do you support stronger Campaign Finance Reform in Somerville to reduce the maximum individual contribution to a campaign from $1,000 (current) to $500? YesYesYes
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Do you support the idea of making all new development projects (18 or more residential units) in Somerville comply with the 20% inclusionary housing ordinance through on-site units only?YesYesYes
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Do you believe that all large scale development should have a Community Benefits Agreement that is funded by the developer(s) and democratically controlled by an elected community group?YesYesYes
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Do you support a new 1% transfer tax on real estate transactions in the city, with the money from this tax being budgeted exclusively for affordable housing programs?YesYesYes
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Would you support an ordinance that would give Somerville tenants the right of first refusal when their homes are sold?YesYesYes
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Would you support establishing a new "Housing Trust Fund" to help city employees stay in Somerville?YesYesYes
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?Development, Affordable Housing and Campaign Finance don't really fall under the purview of a School Committee member, however as an activist & org board member in Somerville (CAAS & SCATV), I've had to organize around these issues. In order to push back against developers and their undue influence in our communities, I've proposed the above positions before.In addition to the Housing Trust Fund, I believe that city employees deserve to be paid moreAs a legal services attorney that works with low-income residents of Somerville, I can tell you first-hand how the housing crisis is affecting our families. Every day we have clients being evicted from their long-term homes because property owners are either selling their properties for high profit or want to rent them for more money. Our clients who have mobile Section 8 vouchers (housing subsidy) who are being evicted for no fault (or any reason) CANNOT find apartments in or around our city because the payment standard is too low (what the city will pay for rent in the private market) and because of discrimination (landlords don't want to rent to families or individuals with housing subsidies, even though it's guaranteed monthly rent from the government because they can get more money from paying tenants and they don't have to worry about the extra paperwork and inspections required under the subsidy program). So we find ourselves advising our clients to look 3-4 cities away, though many of them have medical providers here, and their children in our schools. It is devastating to the community and we MUST do anything and everything we can to support all our families to stay here who want to stay here.During my two terms serving on the Somerville School Committee and a parent of students in
the Somerville Public Schools (SPS) for the last ten years I have increasingly watched families
leave the city due to the cost of housing. Student mobility is a challenge in Gateway cities,
impacting the continuity of student’s education as well as the fabric of our school communities. I
am very interested in better understanding and supporting viable housing solutions that will
sustain and strengthen our school communities.
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Will you support expanding and improving enforcement of our city's Living Wage Ordinance?YesYesYes
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Should all construction on projects that are supported by our local tax dollars be held to area labor standards and prevailing wages? YesYesYes
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Would you support implementing and enforcing the city's Wage Theft law?YesYesYes
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Do you support Somerville's status as a sanctuary city? What other steps would you take to ensure immigrants feel safe and welcome in our city and are treated fairly?Yes! I would work hard to make sure that due process and the 4th amendment extend to all residents of Somerville. I especially will work with churches, PTAs, and other groups to provide discreet, coordinated responses to raids, status renewals, and protections while in the public schools.I fully support Somerville as a Sanctuary City. I would like to see all parent liaisons in the public schools working full time to ensure that they provide full support to immigrant families in order to provide full access to all the public services to which they are entitled.Yes, I am a strong advocate for immigrant rights and have worked my entire career with immigrant families and workers for social justice and social change. I have worked on living wage campaigns as a former union organizer (in Boston and in Providence, RI), and as a campus organizer at U-Michigan and U-Mass (where I founded a student-labor alliance that is still organizing today! "SOLE"). Specifically, in our schools we have already passed the necessary language that would keep ICE out of our buildings in the event of a raid in our City, and we've done a good job communicating to families that our district supports all families. We've held workshops and trainings and other planning meetings to communicate this in the target languages that the majority of our families speak. Currently I'm pushing our School Committee to offer more of our materials (including our agendas) translated, and to have interpreters available at our meetings so all families can participate in our process and offer their feedback and concerns. I think we need to put our money where our mouth is in terms of honoring and including our immigrant families in the power and decision-making structures of our City, and the way to do that is to expand language-access, broaden our meetings and meeting structure to be as accessible as possible, and through direct and targeted outreach.Yes, I support Somerville’s status as a sanctuary city. Somerville Public Schools is dedicated to
educating all students, regardless of their immigration status. In March 2017, the School
Committee passed a resolution to Affirm SPS as Safe and Welcoming for All Students which
outlined both the SPS commitment to all students and several of the necessary safeguards.
Additional policies were adopted and adjusted to realize the vision of the resolution. The SPS
also hosts “Know Your Rights” workshops for immigrant families. I attended and spoke as the
School Committee Chair at the One Somerville Rally and look forward to future opportunities
explore and share how the SPS can support our families and sanctuary city status.
I, along with the entire Somerville School Committee, have already passed new policies about student record keeping and supported the Superintendent’s development of procedures to better serve our immigrant students. I have voted to expand programing in SPS to serve and support our immigrant students and families.
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?I'm a fighter for educational equity, especially for low-income immigrant families.
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Do you support more charter schools for Somerville?NoNoNoAn additional Charter School in Somerville could destabilize our school enrollment, resulting in classroom closures and administration changes as a result of a reduced student population. I did not support the lifting of the Charter Cap and participated in the No on 2 Campaign. Under the current model, Somerville has already reached its Charter School cap so the city itself is not at risk for an additional charter schools, however neighboring communities with Charter Schools could increasingly attract Somerville students, either into a current or future Charter School. Somerville schools must continue to invest in high quality instruction, staff support and targeted programming to better meet the needs of our students and attract and retain the best educators. Continuing to improve the quality and variety of the experiences at Somerville schools is the best way to reduce the perceived need for alternatives to in district public schools.In 2011-12, I actively opposed the Somerville Progressive Charter School application. In 2016, I worked on the No on 2 Campaign including hosting canvasses at my house, rallying at the State House, and voting in support of Somerville School Committee resolution opposing the expansion of charter schools.
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Do you support high stakes testing?NoNoNoI support balanced and holistic assessments to inform educators on the effectiveness of their practice and allow school districts to monitor the impact of investments in schools and programming. Current standardized academic testing should be one component of assessments that address not only academic, but also social and emotional development and career and college readiness. Somerville has played a leadership role in developing alternative assessments, as a founding member of MEICA (a state assessment consortium), guided by the SC vision to educate the whole child.
Testing programs are necessary for district and school accountability, but they are not effective when the “high stakes” are punitive measures which disproportionately disfavor low income and minority youth due to the correlation between raw test scores and socio-economic status. Challenged districts and schools would fare better with increased state support, versus punishment, in response to poor student outcomes. I was relieved when lawmakers successfully advocated to change the accountability model to have a greater emphasis on student growth -- how a student has improved over the year -- and look forward to the development and adoption of a more holistic approach to standardize testing that considers the whole child development necessary to be a healthy and productive member of our community. As a School Committee member I will continue to advocate for a holistic assessments that spotlight SPS successes and challenges, and lead to greater opportunities for all students.
That said, in Somerville we have an achievement gap demonstrated in our testing, which highlights some students need more support. Assessment that continue to focus our attention to these gaps are necessary to increase equity -- creating equal opportunity for all the youth of Somerville by monitoring and closing this gap.
I have consistently voted in support of Somerville Public School developing more holistic assessments to capture a broad range of measures of both student and school success. I voted to develop a Whole School Quality assessment (developed by Somerville’s Jack Sneider) now the foundation for the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA). Somerville Public Schools is one of the founding members of this initiative to develope performance based task evaluations and other alternatives to current assessments. Opposing high stakes testing is not enough; I support Somerville as leader in locally developed alternative assessments that have the potential to replace MCAS.
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Would you support universal pre-Kindergarten and expanded after-school programs in Somerville? YesYesYesI have and will continue to support universal pre-Kindergarten through our mixed delivery model
and expanded afterschool programs in Somerville. SPS has been pursuing a mixed delivery
model, which includes SPS pre-K as well as private and nonprofit providers. Instead of
displacing current pre-K providers, which are designed to serve particular populations and have
strongs roots in our community, SPS has chosen the evidenced based model of partnering with
providers to learn from one another and bring up the overall quality of programing for all. SPS is
taking this work one step further with programing for children aged 0-3. The most powerful way
to close the achievement gap is to prevent it from starting, which requires programming to
support families in preparing their children for school. The SC supported an early childhood
leadership role at SPS who is working with staff and partners to pursue the long term vision of
eliminating the achievement gap, as well as increased professional development and support
for SPS and partner educators.
Increasing out of school time opportunities for students, including summer programming as well
as after school, requires a focus not only the number of “seats” but access to those programs.
The Community Schools (the SPS afterschool program) recently revamped their pricing
structure to increase access for students but outreach and communication is also necessary to
realize this goal. Additionally, the School Committee budget supported the introductions of
several targeted out of school time programs to serve middle grades students, a particularly
underserved population. This is a step in realizing the long term vision of broader after school
offerings to meet the targeted enrichment and remediation needs of our students.
I have, and will continue, to support Somerville Public School’s goal of universal pre-Kindergarten readiness and expanded after-school programming. I make the distinction universal pre-K and universal pre-K readiness. All children should be pre-K ready, but in a mixed delivery system. SPS should not strive to be the only pre-K provider potentially shutting down other local providers. I have voted for SPS to provide professional development and a learning community for providers across the city to improve quality of instruction no matter where a child attends pre-K. I have supported the expansion of after school programming including El Sistema. In the 2017-18 school year, SPS is partnering with three exciting community partners (The Calculus Project, Citizen Schools, and Breakthrough) to expand after-school programing with a focus on the middle grades.
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?I've spent time after being the Ward 1 Surrogate for Mike Connolly to canvass, organize, and support No on 2. I've supplemented No on 2 with Yes on 5 due to the promise of expanded after-school programming. The process with the new high school requires more accountability, and I hope to play a part in making the process accessible to the public.I also support robust summer education programs which are shown by research to help close the achievement gap.We essentially already have universal pre-K in our City as our SMILE program is free and there is currently no waitlist for families to join. It is not, however, a full day program, though we are considering what that would take. And we have offered expanded access to after school for preK families so it is possible for families to get the childcare they need for a full day (and through our new sliding scale and access to vouchers, which I was instrumental in pushing for, this is more financially attainable for many lower income families).For me, there is nothing more deeply political than educating all our students for post-secondary success, to advocate for themselves, and to participate in their local, state, and national communities.
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Do you support moving to 100% renewable energy by 2035 in all public facilities, including electricity, heating, and city transportation?YesYesYes
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Would you fight and budget for the new Somerville High School being "net zero" (despite the school committee and the city saying it is not economically feasible)? YesYesYesThe City of Somerville is leading the SHS planning activities through the High School Building
Committee, whose work is enhanced by community advocacy to challenge and inform the
design process. The budget for the building is owned by the City, informed by the Building
Committee. Several administrators from SPS are members of the Building Committee, as well
as the School Committee Ward 1 representative, Steve Roix. My understanding is there have
been several spirited debates regarding the energy efficiency of the future SHS, including
additions to the budget to raise the building from LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design, certified by the U.S. Green Buildings Council non-profit) certified Silver
status to Silver-Plus. I am an advocate for investing in necessarily infrastructure to allow for
future improvements. The detailed design process will continue to necessitate trade offs with a
commitment to providing SPS students the best experience possible, realizing the new and
exciting High School educational vision created by SPS administration, in addition to being a
valuable resource for the community.		Like all capital projects, the Somerville High School Building Project is on the city side. I would need to make that decision in the context of the student needs (vocational space, science labs, performance and studio arts, academic needs, athletic needs, accessibility, world language labs, cafeteria, counseling needs), educator needs (space for common planning, meeting with students, break time), and the public’s needs to access this important community resource (performance space, meeting space, Career and Technical Educational shops [reasonably priced car repairs, hair salon, SHS Café], FabLab, Advanced Manufacturing Training Program).
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Would you support new "near-highway" zoning to reduce the health impact of air pollution from Routes 93 and 16?YesYesYes
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Do you support efforts to divest pension and municipal funds from fossil fuels and from banks that support construction of fossil fuel infrastructure?YesYesYes
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?Citing the work that Ellin Reisner has done, I've supported barriers near I-93 since the proximity has clear detrimental health outcomes.I have attended rallies in support of fossil fuel divestment and was so happy to see that recent victory in our City. I believe our new high school should be a model of green energy and building for the state and the country, and we must prioritize our environment both to model for our children but also for practical reasons, since we have only one planet. I've been pushing for district-wide recycling (so insane we don't already have this!) and also for composting to help alleviate the overwhelming food waste in our cafeterias. This budget cycle we approve funding to have the District work with the city/DPW to begin this process and I hope it moves swiftly along - no time to waste when it comes to saving our planet!
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Do you support ending mandatory minimum sentencing in Massachusetts? YesYesYes
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Do you support demilitarizing the police force and increased funding for community policing and de-escalation training?YesYesYes
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Do you support increased funding for mental health and substance abuse programs?YesYesYesYes, I support increased funding for mental health and substance programs. SPS has increased
student access to mental health services, including some delivered in school, through
additional partnerships and continues to explore ways to meet the increasing needs of the
students of SPS.
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?My lived experience as a Latino immigrant has informed my racial justice views. White supremacy lingers in archaic, present, and potentially lasting ways. The increase of a prison-industrial complex concerns me as school to prison pipelines, detentions of immigrants, and police brutality highlight needed necessary reforms for justice and efficacy purposes. As a school committee member, I'd facilitate input from the public, regularly meet with school resource officers, and members of the board of alderman in order to be positioned to make changes when appropriate.It is so critical that we end the prison-industrial complex and the New Jim Crow that imprisons a disproportionate number of people of color, and traumatizes families and whole communities. We can and we must do better. I'd like to see our criminal justice system employ more of what we are implementing in our schools in terms of holistic healing practices such as restorative justice techniques and teaching and supporting folks in meditation, yoga and other forms of healthy living. It is incredible how little mental health and substance abuse support individuals receive when they encounter the criminal justice system, and we could save so many resources and lives by starting there, offering the support folks need to be successful, rather than wasting and abusing human lives by locking them up needlessly. I feel very passionately about this issue.
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How would you change appointments to city boards and commissions to create more democratic and participatory structures for resident decision-making, particularly in planning and development?I propose switching to something that emulates a blind admissions process similar to classical musicians. This will disrupt the power consolidation from a strong mayor and allow for merit to bypass any bias from those considering the appointments.I would certainly support mandatory term limits for city boards. I also believe that board decisions should be more transparent, with each member explaining his/her vote.The Board of Alderman should have greater involvement beyond just final approval, including nominating and public hearings for interviews. Citizens should be able to petition directly and be considered.The School Committee does not have boards or commissions, however the School Committee
is considering how additional committees or task forces can be used to engaged the community
on specific topics, which include the question of membership.
The School Committee is also currently exploring ways to increase community engagement in
our work. Under discussion for the School Committee this year is additional targeted translation
and interpretation services and the inclusion of public comment in SC meeting either through
additional public forums or scheduled on meeting agendas. In the spring, the SC experimented
with coordinated SC office hours across the city and I would like to see this practice become
formalized and initiated at least three times per the school year.
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Would you support allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal races?YesYesYes
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?All our residents should be included in our decision-making process, regardless of immigration status. Let us be a leader nationwide in this! It would also help us elect immigrants to elected office, as currently our local electeds are anything but representative of the majority of our residents (though perhaps somewhat representative of those who vote in local municipal elections).
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Do you support a $15/hour (or greater) minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers?YesYesYes
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Do you support the Fair Share Amendment, which would raise taxes on incomes over a million dollars in Massachusetts?YesYesYes
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Do you support the Massachusetts Safe Communities Act to extend sanctuary protections to the entire state? YesYesYes
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Do you support consolidating our state's private health insurance companies into a single state health insurance payer? YesYesYes
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?Whenever appropriate, I would advocate for these positions as a member of the School Committee.I moved and got unanimous approval for a resolution at the School Committee in support of the Fair Share Amendment. And, if we haven't yet supported Safe Communities, I will move for us to do that publicly, as well. Again, a living wage is critical for all, which is why I worked as a union organizer fighting for improved wages and working conditions for low-income janitors (SEIU) and industrial laundry workers (UNITE). I also hold a masters in a Labor Studies where I learned strategies for organizing and our own labor history in order to understand where we need to take the labor movement in order to expand and grow the ranks and offer increased democratic and just workplaces for all. This very much includes a strategy for racial justice, and for language access in all organizations.
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Would you join with local members of Our Revolution to meet with our Member of Congress to seek her/his support for these bills? YesYes
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Would you like to add any comments or clarify anything about the issues above or your answers?It would be an honor to join members of Our Revolution on this campaign.I have been an activist on all of these issues since I was an undergraduate in the late 1990s. I ran for office to strengthen our City's schools for all our families. I ran for less testing, more learning. I ran for increased focus on wellness for our students and staff. I ran for expanded programming and access to full day learning for our students, regardless of income and ability to pay. I ran for expanded language access to none of our families are left out of the process or our school communities. _x000D__x000D_You can read more about my specific policy platforms, and the issues I am working on and care most about, on my website: http://www.leeericapalmer.org/_x000D__x000D_I am proud to have been arrested for civil disobedience on the UMass-Amherst campus in 2002 when the RA's were organizing their union and the University was refusing to negotiate with them in good faith (they later won their first contract). As an organizer, former high school Spanish teacher in Boston and now an attorney I have used legal, education, organizing and media strategies to win campaigns on many of the issues you have listed here in your questionnaire. _x000D__x000D_I look forward to joining with you all to continue the struggle. La lucha sigue!
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