Transgender Rights

Below,, my letter  sent to Governor Baker, copying Lexington's legislators. The letter was sent via the contact form offered on mass.gov

Governor Charles D. Baker IV, Office of the Governor, Room 280, Boston 02133

April 1, 2016

Governor Baker,

Only recently did I learn about the Transgender Rights Bill (SB 735/HB 1577).

I was astonished to learn that under current Massachusetts law, there are not explicit protections (protections you and I probably take for granted) ensuring that transgender people can’t be turned away from a hotel, or denied service at a restaurant, simply because of who they are.

I also learned that our Commonwealth is behind in this regard, as 18 other states plus Washington DC have already passed similar legislation: CA - CO - CT - DC - DE - HI - IA - IL - ME - MD - MN - NJ - NM - NV - NY - OR - RI - VT & WA!

Massachusetts has always shone like a beacon in supporting equal rights and this is not the time to diminish our radiance.

The bill is stalled in the Joint Judiciary Committee and hasn’t been reported out from either House or Senate, yet there is a veto-proof majority in both.

Furthermore, though the Speaker has confirmed he has the votes to pass the House bill, many legislators there are lacking the courage to speak out publicly with their support for the bill unless they know that their Governor will support them.

It’s past time for transgender people to be treated fairly and equally in our Commonwealth. As your constituent, I urge you to provide the leadership that is necessary to speak out in support of transgender rights and commit to signing it into law.

Thank you for your consideration and for all you do.

CC: Representative Jay Kaufman, Senator Ken Donnelly, Senator Mike Barrett

ATM continues at LHS tonight, 7:15

Town Meeting will convene tonight in the auditorium of Lexington High School, 251 Waltham Street. We'll begin at 7:15 for the annual ceremony honoring LHS and Minuteman High School seniors, then take up the financial articles, beginning with Article 4: Appropriate FY2017 Operating Budget (Article Motions, pp.2-4).

While the Town’s FY2017 operating budget has many complexities, please note:

The budget process begins with the Selectmen's Goal Setting in June. In developing the annual operating budget, the Board of Selectmen continued to adhere to the following principles in order to preserve the Town’s long-term financial condition:

1. Continue to set aside funds into the Capital Stabilization Fund as part of the comprehensive long-term strategy for funding critical school and municipal projects.

2. Core services currently provided through the operating and capital budgets should be maintained, recognizing that changes in service demands may require that additional resources be provided in certain areas.

3. Resources should continue to be provided for road, intersection, traffic calming and sidewalk improvements and to address deferred maintenance in these assets.

4. Recurring revenues, not reserves or one-time revenues, should support operating expenses and debt service.

5. Debt will not be used to fund current operating expenditures.

6. Adequate reserves and contingency funds will be budgeted, consistent with the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Financial Policy Committee (2006) as adopted by the Board of Selectmen.

7. The use of reserves to fund operating expenses should be limited to cover temporary revenue shortfalls, consistent with the recommendations of the Selectmen’s Ad Hoc Fiscal Task Force (2009).

8. Sufficient funds for building maintenance will be budgeted to properly maintain facilities and equipment as well as foster energy conservation.

9. One-time revenue use should be limited to funding one-time expenses (e.g., capital projects) or used to fund reserve accounts.

10.Continue to provide funding for the post-employment benefits liability (OPEB)

Also, note information about this year's Revenue Allocation Model:

It has been the Selectmen’s practice to equitably share Town revenues between the municipal departments and the School Department. Based on a model developed by the Town Manager and Superintendent of Schools and accepted by the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and financial committees, projected revenues are allocated, on a preliminary basis, such that after shared expenses are funded, 73.3 percent of all projected FY2017 general fund revenues were allocated to the School Department and 26.7 percent were allocated to municipal departments.

More information may be found in the following documents and reports:

Town Manager's Recommended Budget and Financing Plan

Brown Book & Budget Docs

Appropriation Committee Reports

Article Motions

2016 Town Warrant

Students were the headlines

Deflected attention

Public education advocates were in good company in the Gardner Auditorium at the State House this past Monday, March 7. The Joint Committee on Education held a hearing on seven bills, including two in response to ballot initiatives (the charter cap lift and repeal of Common Core), one on summer learning, one on mental health education in high schools, and three others. I'd prepared testimony in opposition to the charter cap lift (written and oral).

A number of DESE staff were on hand for most of the hearing. Commissioner Chester gave his testimony in opposition to the Common Core ballot question. Two of my BESE colleagues, James Morton and Ed Doherty were there, too: James to give testimony in support of the summer learning bill, and Ed in opposition to the charter cap bill.

I had thought I would do a bunch of tweeting on the Committee's proceedings, but I lost focus for quite some time due to the compelling BPS student walkout happening on twitter.

I had caught wind of the protest as it was developing over the weekend (twitter), thanks to parents who shared their excitement of their kids taking civic responsibility on their own terms, planning the event in order to speak out about the $50M in proposed cuts to their schools.

The pictures began showing up on my twitter feed, telling the story of students leaving school at about 11:30 AM, some
bringing posters and signs they had made, and meeting at the gazebo on the Common. First there were images from around
the city of students getting ready to make the trek. Then there were hundreds beginning to gather. Then hundreds more. And the kids were streaming up and out of the trains, headed to the gazebo, and soon there were hundreds and hundreds of students there. And then there were a thousand students peacefully assembled on the Common and still the students continued coming up from the trains and it was clear that there were well over a thousand students. Someone tweeted out that there were about 2,000 students. And after that, someone said that there were about 3,500 students.

An exuberance of students on the Common.

Then, they began their procession across the Common, up to the State House and I could barely keep up with the pictures then - and I tried to retweet them all, to no avail. Beacon Street was full of students. A sea of students from the front of the State House, expressing their dissatisfaction with the proposed, devastating cuts to their schools.

I couldn't hear from inside the State House, but apparently there was chanting. Periscopes and short videos were attached to tweets. Councillor Tito Jackson was being interviewed out in front. He said he supported the students. He said that the recent approval by the BESE to expand charter seats in Boston would add nearly $20M more to the BPS shortfall. I was riveted. It was a powerful display of youthful concern and civic engagement.

Eventually, I had to turn my full attention to the hearing when it was time to give my testimony. I spoke as part of a panel with Lisa Guisbond, Executive Director of Citizen's for Public Schools, and Kevin Murray, Executive Director of the Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy at Northeastern University's School of Law (their November 2014 case study of Massachusetts charter schools is a must read). Lisa noted new waitlist data that CPS had analyzed and Kevin cited an article that related charter school conditions reminiscent of the subprime mortgage crisis. (Parent Imperfect blogged about the article).

Public ed hearings are a great opportunity to see many fellow/sister advocates, friendships forged in the fight for strong public schools for all kids, and to make new face to face connections. It was great to finally meet Heshan and to briefly catch up with Tito. Barbara, Paul, Angela, Tom, Paul, Phyllis - frequently a presence at the State House when the the Joint Committee is hearing testimony. Great seeing them. And I always enjoy hanging out and catching up with Tracy and Margaret whenever possible. 

My testimony didn't feel complete - there's just so much to say about charters and so little time! So, I gave a short testimony on Monday, and sent a long written one to the Committee today.

I left the hearing a bit before 4:00; Tracy tweeted out that the hearing adjourned at about 5:00. If you want to read a more coherent account of the hearing, you'll want to read from her blog.

Time to Bring Public Policy and Social Media Together for Progress

I've had a great summer, much of it spent off the grid unplugged from email, tapping into social media for fun. It's been great connecting on a more personal level with family and friends in real time talking, laughing, crying, sharing, hugging.

Thinking back to when Facebook arrived on the scene in February 2004: I was slow to adopt. I signed up eventually and connected to family and local friends. When Twitter followed in March 2006, I decided I was not going to try to keep up with yet another platform. Not so for businesses, corporations, institutions, and the like. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook opened up a whole new world of marketing strategy for them.

"We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it." ~ Erik Qualman

After being accepted in 2011 into a 6-month program for women interested in pursuing political office, I was introduced to Twitter and quickly grew to enjoy it. I set myself up on LinkedIn later that same year and leaned into the idea of using Facebook as a way to connect with folks on a range of issues, too. This video gives a snapshot of social media at the time:



Gone are the questions asking if social media is here to stay. Clearly they are, though how kids and adults are using social media today has changed dramatically.

Consider a PEW study published earlier this year that provides an overview on American teens and their use of technology and social media. One finding showed that 92% of teens were online everyday, with 24% online "almost constantly".

So much has changed - and is changing - across our media-saturated landscape. Schools and individual teachers are working to bring media literacy to students, but media literacy is not broadly implemented in our public schools and media literacy is rarely part of the public debate on education. Still, more and more politicians and policymakers are getting on twitter and facebook to connect to their stakeholders and constituents.

I'm a member of the national advisory council for Media Literacy Now. We want our elected representatives and policymakers to engage with us on social media. As more and more elected people are engaging stakeholders and constituents through Twitter and Facebook, we can connect with them in meaningful ways to impact awareness of the urgent need for media literacy education and other key public policy issues of our time.

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Posts, Podcasts, tweets

• Educational Software Gets Attention from State Politicians
• ISTE: Standardized curriculum for teaching tech skills
• 9 things we learned about phones from a teenager
• Growing up Digital: 3 truths for the adults
• A Parent's Guide to All that "EdTech" in Your Kid's Classroom

Should apps be part of a library’s story time? Ask @mediatrician: http://t.co/qpvRT2r27a #BackToSchool

— CtrMediaChildHealth (@cmch_boston) September 2, 2015

Tips for an online age: What not to share http://t.co/JYnTEtDlso @MBrodeur via @BostonGlobe

— MediaLiteracyNow.org (@MediaLitNow) September 1, 2015

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Addendum: cross-posted September 9 on Media Literacy Now blog

Perceptions in Leadership

At about the time the U.S. Women’s National Team won the 2015 FIFA World Cup, Misty Copeland was promoted to principal ballerina at the American Ballet Theater, the first African-American woman to do so in its 75-year history.  A few weeks later, NFL’s Arizona Cardinals named Dr. Jen Welter as their first female coach. It’s wonderful to see these “firsts” for women - - but in 2015 we have a long way to go in supporting young women and girls today so they become confident and effective leaders tomorrow.

A recent study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education reinforced this.

The study focused on perceptions of middle and high school boys and girls about gender and leadership and revealed that the gender gap persists. We already knew this, but it’s good to have the data.

Nearly 20,000 diverse middle and high school students from public and private schools in the US, Canada, and international schools, and 1,200 parents took part. Most of them didn’t see women as leaders in most fields, or only in fields stereotypically female, as shown in the graphic below, taken from the study:

Gender stereotyping is pervasive in media and culture, surrounding boys and girls with pernicious images that hinder ability and limit choices and opportunities. For girls, this can erode confidence in their leadership and also cultivate and reinforce biases in boys. Ultimately, we all pay the price of such limiting behaviors. Indeed, we are paying the price now.

Adults and parents must confront and challenge their own gender biases, then empower boys and girls to identify and actively combat them, too. Media literacy for all can help. Media literacy provides a framework to challenge and empower children, youth, and adults from negative stereotyping and build essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. Until, and unless we do, we will continue to be surprised every time a woman becomes a "first".

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Addendum: Cross-posted on Media Literacy Now, Monday, August 10, 2015 

The Journey of a Thousand Meetings

September 12, 2014

Looking back, I will tell you that each step was borne of on-going curiosity, learning, and interest. I'm writing about it because it's important to reflect back. Parent voice is not only important, it is necessary on the issues that have an impact on our children, our schools, and our communities. I have been supported by family, friends, neighbors, community members, the PTA, and the Governor. I sincerely hope my experience and common sense - and curiosity to want to know and do more - will continue to serve our children's best interests and success.

When our eldest entered Kindergarten my husband and I joined the school's parent group - it happened to be a PTA, and we joined to get to know his teacher and school better, connect with students and families in his class, and generally, be engaged from the outset.

Our children, 2012

As the years went by, and two more children entered the school system, I found myself more and more interested in making a difference at this school. Over time, I took on various roles there because I was interested in using some of my business, organizational, and artistic skills. It was fun getting to know other parents and teachers in the process, whether acting as a Room Parent or Field Trip Chaperon, or sharing the organizing of the 5th Grade Moving-On Ceremony, or working on a Collaborative Art fundraising project involving all classrooms in the school.

As our children grew and developed, so did my interests. Not only did I learn and share in the schools and across our Town, I honed my listening and advocacy skills. In the beginning, I advocated for my own children. I took advantage of leadership training by the PTA, the League of Women Voters, the Public Policy Institute (now the MA Leadership Academy), and more. Soon thereafter, I was advocating for all children in the school, for Town residents, then for all children in the school district. I volunteered on communication and leadership teams for local debt-exclusion overrides, School Committee, and Selectman candidate elections; drafted letters and fliers in response to state Ballot Initiatives; and spoke up to participate on a state education task force.

Last Friday, September 12, 2014, I was honored to be sworn-in by Governor Patrick as the Parent Representative of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Massachusetts General Laws required that I step down from my role on the Lexington School Committee. I look forward to advocating for the nearly one million children in our public schools across the Commonwealth.

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Handheld shots from the Governor's Office

Other stuff, perhaps of interest:

• From Michigan: The Colorful Principal: Tough to Admit @benjamingilpin
• From British Columbia Public Schools: Schools, Politics, and Other Stuff: Public Education is Hurting
• From Edutopia: Start the Year by Building Hope @edutopia

Raise Up MA - Update!

RaiseUpMA advocates
at the Tuesday Farmer's
Market, Lexington

For the past two months I've been part of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition working to gather signatures across Massachusetts for a ballot initiative that would see two questions added to the statewide ballot next November (see previous Posts: Raise Up Massachusetts; PDM). These two important initiatives would index the minimum wage and require employers to provide earned sick time to their employees.

The coalition has been successful! We succeeded in our signature drive - - gathering more than a quarter-million signatures, far surpassing our most ambitious targets. And, PDM has substantially exceeded its own ambitious goals. I was one of many familiar faces at the Farmer's Market each Tuesday from mid-September through the end of October and at several Town events. I also made a personal commitment to knock doors in my precinct - and I'm pleased to say that I successfully gathered 500+ signatures for my efforts.

The impact of Raise Up's statewide campaign has led the state Senate's leadership to advance a minimum wage measure that would meet many of the campaign's goals.

I stand with PDM and statewide activists who await this initiative moving forward, in both legislative and electoral settings, to see these important progressive reforms put into law.

The Wall (two weeks later)

Scroll down to my post of September 25, 2013 to see how the wall has changed! Still plenty of time for more mailings...I'll try updating the wall one more time before the Special Election this coming Tuesday, October 15th.

Political Mailings - CD5

These are the mailings I've received from the Democratic Candidates - I've taped them up on my kitchen wall. With the Special Election Primary just under three weeks away, I am sure to receive more! I'll update the wall with everything I've received closer to October 15th.

Media Literacy

Media is powerful.

Today's media landscape has dramatically changed over the last decade and our children are now living in a world of 24/7 media.

Results of a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed (2010) that

Massachusetts Kids Count Blog

The Kids Count Blog is a group blog about the well-being of children in Massachusetts. A wide range of issues affecting children are covered: from education and child care to juvenile justice and health. 

Many advocates and advocacy organizations were invited to guest post all week (June 17-21, 2013) as the Commonwealth marked the twentieth anniversary of the landmark Massachusetts Education Reform Act (signed into law on June 18, 1993). My post appeared on June 20, 2013 - click on the following link to read it: MERA::Reality Check.