Lauren Grasso

Please share your skills, qualifications, and experiences that will make you a great member of the School Committee. Do you have a candidate website or social media page where voters can learn more about you?

While attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I began my professional career working with children and youth in residentials and therapeutic day schools. After graduating, I worked in special education at Amherst Regional HIgh School. It was around this time that I found myself drawn to learning more about the impact of trauma and the delivery of trauma informed care. This naturally steered me towards a master’s degree in social work from Simmons College. With my clinical degree, I stepped back into the field as a community based therapist and later as an adjunct faculty at what is now Simmons University in the School of Social Work Field Department. I have maintained my status as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) and recently shifted my focus providing death doula services as a volunteer at the Rose Monahan Hospice House in Worcester. 

I possess several skills that have both been strengths in both clinical work and will make me a positive addition to the school committee. I am approachable. This will allow me to uplift the voices, thoughts, and experiences of community members, in service of the town. Being trustworthy and dependable is important to me. I can be counted on. Resisting and letting go of judgments allows me to be fully present with people. I have taken time to explore the impact of my working style in order to hear and hold multiple perspectives. I have experience with, and make a constant effort to improve my cultural adaptability, being willing and able to recognize, understand, and work effectively across cultural and social  differences. 

I believe that these traits will support me in working well collaboratively with other school committee members, as well, to bring a greater sense of transparency to these crucial public conversations. Sharon is a passionate bunch, which tells me that people really care. This energy should be harnessed and utilized to move the district forward, openly. The town should be invited into school matters, not shut out of them! 

For more about my candidacy, please follow my Facebook page: Lauren Grasso for Sharon School Committee https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556975240666

The Sharon School Committee has to deal with a budget deficit of $1-1.5 million dollars every year. How will you handle these difficult choices?

The forced budget cuts facing Sharon are an invitation to be future-oriented and thoughtful about the effects of decisions in years to come. I think the budget will continue to be a concern so long-range planning is necessary. 

I believe the budget will be best addressed with transparency and collaboration across town committees. I am in favor of a stronger working relationship between the Sharon Public School System and the Town Finance Committee. I believe that utilizing the expertise of the Town Finance Committee members could even reduce the need for requesting additional funding from the town.  Cooperation between committees would lead to greater openness, fewer surprises, and a decreased need for sudden pivoting for those most affected by funding decisions, such as the reinstated kindergarten fees. 

Though the school committee ultimately approves or refuses the budget, Sharon residents are entitled to understand and have a voice in the process. Providing necessary avenues for town members to learn about funding priorities and provide feedback will further extend the collaborative process. 

Deleveling is a popular trend nationwide to eliminate advanced and honors classes. The Sharon superintendent has proposed to eliminate advanced math at the middle school and advanced science classes in early high school. What is your position on deleveling?

Education is susceptible to pendulum swings; meaning there are often large shifts between educational trends. It seems as though deleveling is currently having a swing moment. My position is to attempt to slow down and acknowledge that there are many possibilities that are worth considering between these two extremes. Implementing tracking prior to high school does seem to have the potential to exacerbate the achievement gap. However, we need to be certain that our system is serving learners of all levels or abilities throughout their school years. 

Moving away from our current model requires a wider range of differentiated instruction, given a heterogeneously grouped classroom. Teachers need time and opportunities for collaboration to  successfully implement and refine systems prompting meaningful learning across student groups.  Ideally, educators would have chances to participate in professional development to increase their proficiency with flexible grouping, project based learning, logic puzzles, three act tasks, problem solving tasks, and other methods designed to challenge all students.  

However, I am concerned that the degree of professional development required would be hard to meet, given the reduction in funding. We need to be consistently supporting our teachers in finding ways to deliver differentiated instruction.  If we are going to commit to this change in our schools, it’s imperative that our accelerated learners continue to be challenged by the curriculum. 

It would be advisable to thoroughly review data on current instruction and achievement, increasing training, and look to neighboring districts who have made this change prior to adjusting our current system. Perhaps this work has already begun in the district. However, if that is the case, I believe more transparency is necessary. The district should also be carefully collecting data regarding patterns of enrollment in direct relation to trends in tracking to make sure that we are not seeing more students pursuing private education. These findings will certainly be informative to the district.

Many Sharon parents feel they are forced to hire private tutors or enroll in outside classes because either their child is not being challenged enough or is falling behind. What can you do as a School Committee member to help all children achieve their full academic potential?

I am most interested in what this question reflects. To me it reads that we, as a district, are only serving one demographic of students well. This calls for further exploration and attention to offering increasingly rigorous learning opportunities within the existing curriculum. We need to extend our reach beyond the center and ensure instruction reaches both ends of the learning spectrum. As a school committee member, I will remain committed to advocating for a more inclusive approach to instruction to best serve all students and provide additional support to teachers. Greater potential exists within a framework that provides a style of engagement that encourages depth to learning, regardless of a student’s abilities. More meaningful learning can be achieved by offering a greater degree of flexibility in the ways in which students access materials and demonstrate what they know. Teachers need time to work collaboratively and creatively problem solve in order to meet the demands placed on them. Our district needs to keep all students motivated to learn. I want the entire student body to be compelled to participate fully in their academic environments and beyond. Let’s make lifelong learning a priority for all of our students!