Copyright MassLive
SPRINGFIELD — The School Committee race in District 3, which covers Wards 6 and 7, will have voters deciding between two experienced educators. Christopher Collins was first elected to the School Committee in 2007, while this is the first time Rosa Valentin has run for public office. Ahead of Tuesday, The Republican reached out to all candidates for the opposed School Committee seats to answer a short questionnaire. Over the next several days, The Republican will be publishing the candidates’ answers to the questions in print. Find more candidates and responses at masslive.com/topic/election. Name: Christopher Collins Age: 75 Address: 33 Greenbrier St. Profession: Retired educator Position running for: District 3 School Committee Introductory statement: I am a lifelong citizen of Springfield and proud graduate of Tech High School. I went to Westfield State College, majoring in elementary education and graduated in 1972. While in college, I worked as a custodian. I worked as a substitute teacher prior to being hired at full time. I again attended Westfield State to acquire my master’s degree in educational administration. My next position was as director of the ECOS program, followed by assistant principal, at New North School. I was promoted to principal of Warner School. I also worked at City Hall as the director of health insurance when the city ran its own insurance plan. I returned to the school department as principal of Mary Lynch School. I am proud to have been part of many successful initiatives which significantly lowered the dropout rate, dramatically increased the graduation rate, strongly reduced the number of arrest and suspensions, brought laptops to all students, and introduced full-time preschool to all children age 3 and older. What letter grade would you give the school system? Why? I would give the system a solid B. A lot has been accomplished thus far, but more progress is needed to eliminate the learning gap between Springfield students and the state as measured by the MCAS test. What is the biggest challenge the schools face? The biggest challenge will be to continue to seek and implement changes to instruction, which will bring all Springfield students on par with other students in the state. There has been significant progress in this area with a large number of student achieving this goal. However, we cannot rest until all students reach parity with others in the state. Every student must leave SPS with the tools needed to be successful whether it be in academic pursuits of the workforce. The school budget is roughly two-thirds of the city budget, and there are concerns about federal and state assistance dropping. How should the School Committee address any loss of funding? SPS has laid the groundwork to prepare for the reduced funding by careful budgeting requirements, which prevent building an unsustainable workforce as funding reduces. The threat of reduced federal funding will require strict adherence to these budgeting principles. Even so, it may require some painful decisions. We must continue to have these decisions made with the input of each learning center. The people in the schools have the best understanding of how reductions will affect their school. With the MCAS no longer a condition of graduation, what should the diploma requirements be? Passing the MCAS high school tests are no longer a requirement for graduation. They should never have been. People trained in education understand the proper use of testing. The state turned it into a mechanism of punishment and shame. We need to get back to making sure the courses required in SPS align with the state standards, and that there are appropriate assessments utilized in each class that measure mastery of the concepts.
