Election Preview: Questions For The Nantucket School Committee Candidates

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s annual elections, hear more from the candidates for School Committee.

The following questions and answers were transcribed from the Civic League’s annual Meet the Candidates forum. They have been edited for clarity and brevity. Watch the full forum at this link.

Turf and athletic improvements have been a dominant topic in recent months. But going beyond that, what do you see as the most urgent issue facing the schools?

Jennie Cook

Obviously, the turf has been a big [issue], which I do support…I would definitely take a look at the elementary school. It does need a lot of work. I think also looking even at the middle school, we would definitely need to take a look at both of those. They both would need some work.

Heidi Fee

The turf field was quite a conversation. I support the turf field 100 percent…there's a lot of building improvements that need to happen. We also have an issue with teacher retention. Teacher housing for specialists—[occupational therapists, physical therapists], speech therapists, [applied behavior analysts]—we don't have housing for these people, so they're they're quite migrant, and they're not always there with consistency for our children with differing abilities, and I think that's a huge issue that we need to tackle.

Tim Lepore

As regards the turf field, I will only say: mistakes were made. And we'll see how this all plays out, but I don't want to pick up that scab right now. I think the reading scores have to be improved. We have to look at our population loss. I mean, losing essentially a class [worth of students in enrollment] last year is going to be a real problem as we get down into the 1500s from 1700 plus [students], and, as I mentioned, looking at the elementary school, because it is a real problem. We’ve put patches on it, but it really doesn't work.

Shantaw Bloise-Murphy

Conversations around the turf field most certainly took well-needed attention from other issues that our public school is facing, one of them being ensuring that students have access to high-quality education while addressing the growing pressures on student mental health, staffing, and affordability on the island. Our teachers and staff are the foundation of our schools, but Nantucket’s housing costs and cost of living…makes it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain excellent educators, and unfortunately, when we lose experience or struggle to fill open positions, our kids are who feel the impact.

Another issue is that our kids are facing unprecedented mental health and social-emotional challenges right now. Kids are dealing with navigating academic pressures, social media, anxiety, and, of course, we can't forget the lingering effects of the pandemic. And we need to support our students, and that means investing not only in their academic needs, but also in counseling, behavioral support, and creating school environments where all of our kids feel safe, where they feel connected, and where they're ready to learn. And then, of course, we have to maintain high academic standards, while ensuring equity and opportunity for all of our students, from early literacy and special education services to college, career, and vocational pathways. As we know, many of our kids don't even set foot in a in a traditional college classroom. We're a big trades community, and we need to support our kids in that way as well, by providing those opportunities.

The School Committee implemented a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones in high school. Do you support that or not, how well is it working, and what are your broader thoughts about technology in the classroom?

Jennie Cook

I believe that our school should be places where students are fully present—academically, socially and emotionally. We have seen firsthand how constant phone access affects focus, increases anxiety, fuels social social pressure and pulls students out of the classroom, even when they're physically sitting in it. Teachers are competing with TikTok and group chats and notifications all the time, every minute of the day. So I agree with the [bell-to-bell ban] system, that it creates healthy boundaries without taking phones away permanently. Students still have their phones before and after school, but during the day…you want learning, relationships, and engagement to be priorities.

And I think we need to know that this isn't about punishment. It's about creating an environment where kids can concentrate, participate, and actually connect with one another again. So I think that schools are seeing better attention, fewer behavior issues, and more face-to-face interaction after these policies were put in place for Nantucket, this is about supporting student wellness and giving teachers the ability to teach without constant digital distraction. I completely understand why parents want to be able to reach their children during the school day, but I also believe that there's a difference between that accessibility and that constant interruption. So calling the school, and emailing the front office, communicating with your teachers, are all effective ways to reach students.

Heidi Fee

I think [the cell phone ban has] been amazing for their attention spans. They're able to focus more, they’re not worrying about the next ping on their phones. I do believe they've come up with experimental ways on how to get around the Yondr pouches. I think when it comes to technology, we have to be very careful, because unfortunately, these children are smarter than us when it comes to technology…If we're going to allow technology in the classroom, of course, it has benefits, but I think we need to stay on top of the students when it comes to those things. And again, I think cell phones are hard enough for adults to ignore. Having the children in school with cell phones, it does not benefit them.

Tim Lepore

I think [the cell phone ban is] an important step. Regarding screens, we subject our kids to screens all day long, whether it's a whiteboard, whether it's computers. I think we need to look at cutting down their screen time, particularly in the lower grades. I would also advocate for getting our kids out of the school and having them outside and running around, because I think that that's important for their mental development. Sitting in front of a screen all day is not, particularly in the lower grades, an effective way of teaching kids.

Shantaw Bloise-Murphy

I was 100 percent on board with the bell-to-bell ban of the cell phones in the school. I think that the primary responsibility that we have is to create positive learning environments, and cell phones are a massive distraction to us as adults, so I can't imagine what it's like to be 16, sitting in a classroom with your phone constantly pinging. I think we've seen great results from that ban. We also have heard from our student body representative at our School Committee meetings that it has been an incredibly positive experience for them. And I had the pleasure of sitting in the cafeteria for lunch in the high school, and I felt like I was back in high school, how it was before, where kids actually communicated with each other, and they weren't constantly looking at their phones. So that was absolutely the right decision. We've also seen other school districts moving towards that as well…so as usual, Nantucket led the way, as we always do in that regard.

As far as computers in the classroom, I think also, we are living in a technological age, and we have to prepare our kids for the post-Nantucket Public School experience, but it's also about ensuring that there's purpose and structure. So school-issued technology used in the classroom should most certainly be monitored, and I think our educators do a phenomenal job of that.