Ward 7 Candidate Responses - Mary Jo Rossetti

What political or community activism accomplishments are you most proud of during your last term in office (or the last two years if you have not previously served)? What specific things do you want to accomplish during the coming term?

My pride remains having been entrusted by my community to represent the people of Ward 7 as it relates to education.

In Somerville as a school committee we work together towards established goals. One such example is the recent unanimous support of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to adopt a Resolution presented by Somerville (a first for our school committee) as it relates to the mobile student population. In follow-up, working together with Rep. Carl Sciortino, there is now a bill on the floor in support of our efforts. Furthermore, I received a vote of confidence from my colleagues on the Board to represent Somerville in Washington D.C. at an ever-important national assembly of school committees before NCLB is re-authorized. To that end, we continue to have dialogue with Senator Kennedy prior to the potential re-authorization of this 1,000 plus page bill.

My recent added responsibilities of chairing the Metropolitan Division of the Mass. Assoc. of School Committees (representing 49 communities), coupled with the responsibility of chairing the state-wide Advocacy Committee, I believe have assisted Somerville in it's goal to amend the current polices of both MCAS testing and the NCLB Act.

I am proud of the fact that I am told by the MASC office that this is a first for the Association to have such contact with the Senator, and this being a very important time for decisions in education (potential re-authorization of NCLB), I will continue my aggressive approach.

Pupils in Somerville schools come from diverse linguistic, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds, and bring a range of learning styles to the classroom. What can the City do to provide every child with access to a high quality public education, and what will you do as a School Committee member to further that vision?

Our recent community meetings touched upon this very issue. Again, the School Committee worked together to establish goals, all of which in my opinion address this very issue. As a result, we have empowered Supt. Pierantozzi to bring to us a detailed plan and timeline to meet these goals. As I do with all unfinished business items, I will track the response time of the Supt. If the committee has not received his proposed plan by the fall of 2007, I shall ask for a meeting of the committee as a whole to keep this discussion on the forefront.

How will you create a town-gown relationship with Tufts comparable to that of Cambridge and Boston with their universities?

Back in 2000, as a newly elected school committee member, I began to address this concern. First, I reviewed the "history" of our relationship with Tufts. Next, I organized monthly meetings (myself, Supt. Argenziano, President Bacow, Community Liaison Barbara Rubel, Ward 7 Alderman Jim Halloran, and the then director of Admissions). I tracked the % of Somerville High students who actually applied to Tufts (which was alarming low) and brought to their attention the fact that the community felt that Tufts was financially "out of our reach" and that more needed to be done to assist our community to be accepted by an institution as momentous as Tuft's, in our own back yard!

What got accomplished? In my opinion, more collaboration for staff in the classroom. But, again in my opinion, NOT ENOUGH. My goal of awarding Somerville students better scholarships has still not been reached. I do have the file of notes from many meetings and statistics of then and the years that followed as I continued to meet.

As always, I would welcome any and all interested parties who wish to re-open this unfinished file. While the Tuft's administration has been working with Somerville in a more collaborative way these past couple of years, it still does NOT MEET my expectations.

What will you do to stop the flight of young families away from Somerville public schools?

Since I have been elected, we ask for "exit interviews" by families transferring out of our school system. Not surprisingly, the biggest reason is affordability. This has been brought to the attention of the Board of Alderman and City Hall over the years I have been in office (I am now in my 8th year). I am pleased to see the efforts made for fair housing with the planning of Union Square area. This, however, is not enough.

As for those families not yet in a school system, we have been working more aggressively with Supt. Pierantozzi to better publicize our "best kept secrets" and bring them to all households. A booklet is now in the hands of all realtors, our public libraries, youth centers and city hall, detailing our system and its continued successes. Additionally, the administration is in the final stages (having received important input from community members) of a more personalized thesaurus of the successes of the Somerville Public School System. Also a mailing was sent directly to all young families in Somerville, encouraging their enrollment in our system.

I have recently spoken at the annual meeting of the Clarendon Hill Association, asking for their Board's assistance in planning a summer evening session with our high school headmaster and representative staff and students. The more we continue to bring our system to the community, I am confident that our enrollment will again rise to represent a vast majority of children residing in this wonderful urban environment.

What specific steps will you take to improve the graduation rate of Somerville students?

As a community in Massachusetts we currently rank among the highest in the state. But, as we and the Supt. have stated, we will not settle for less than 100%. Our Next Wave/Full Circle program is one to be admired. We realize the importance of such a program and that is why they were among the few departments in our FY08 Budget planning to receive additional funding to add another staff member. I also believe that the new structuring of SHS administration, although in its early phases, will deliver positive results as we continue to work together towards this goal.

This, together with continued advocacy at the state level as it relates to the unfairness of the current graduation requirement, will remain one of my top goals the coming term.

What specific steps will you take to improve the post-graduate prospects of Somerville students?

I believe that the committee and administration needs to continue to support the reorganized SHS administration in this goal. More specifically, the Guidance Department has been focusing on this area this past year and was recently recognized by the state for its newest efforts. As one member of the committee, I will ask that we meet with our Guidance administration more frequently and receive reports as it relates to all our students and their potential plans and needs to meet those plans.

What specific steps would you take to reduce the waiting list for adult literacy and ESL classes?

Our current adult literacy system is host to a number of communities. State wide the waiting lists are of concern. I have attended our graduation ceremonies these past years. This year in particular a young man's speech peaked my interest. After the ceremony, I asked him to forward it to me so that I may submit it to the state (he did honor my request and Rep. Sciortino now has it).

However, to continue to best address this, I would ask to hear from Ms. Susan Barnard.

* What specific steps will you take to promote pay equity in Somerville? (see http://www.mass.gov/women/payequity/payequity.htm#legislation )

As chair of the School Committee's Special Negotiation Subcommittee, and considering the fact that we are in negotiations at this time, I am not at liberty to publicly discuss this. When, according to the open meeting law, I am at liberty to discuss such topic, I would be most willing and welcome to share with the community my thoughts on this matter.