Paul Ruseau for Medford School Committee
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PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING CANDIDACY For Immediate Release | June 3, 2019 |
Contact: Clare Flaherty Campaign Manager (781) 218-9890 clare@electpaul.org |
Paul Ruseau announces candidacy for re-election to Medford School Committee
(Medford, MA) - Paul Ruseau announced today that he is seeking reelection to the Medford School Committee in November 2019.
A longtime Medford resident, Paul lives in the Hillside neighborhood with his husband Robert and their two children, Nevaeh, a student at the Columbus Elementary School, and Matthew, a student at the Andrews Middle School.
Paul has invested a lot of time getting to know Medford’s residents by holding office hours over 50 times at various locations around town. “The contact with families has been an educational experience like no other. Their perspectives are important and necessary. They inform how I approach policy decisions and priorities,” Ruseau said.
“Identification and validation of a feasible alternative to the middle school randomization is high on my priority list. I understand the stress many families feel by a randomization process. My hope is to create a new model of middle school in Medford that allows for our students to come together before high school,” Ruseau said.
“My first two years on the Medford School Committee have been a very exciting time for Medford Public Schools. I served on the Superintendent Search Committee to find our first new superintendent in over twenty years. I could not be happier with our selection,” Ruseau said. “As we enter year two with Dr. Edouard-Vincent, I am hopeful that the changes already in place and those in the pipeline will yield results that make us all proud.”
“It is my hope that the voters of Medford will give me the opportunity to continue to work on their behalf and move our schools forward. I have participated in trainings covering school finance, the new district report cards and accountability standards, cyber security, vaping, blizzard bags, school start times, school safety planning, restorative justice, social emotional learning, tools for developing a trauma attuned classroom, how to be an effective member, and many other topics,” Ruseau said.
“Learning about our students throughout the K-12 experience has been a pure joy. I see so much positive going on within our schools, but also see opportunity for improvement and some gaps that must be closed. In particular I want to focus our elementary schools on ensuring that every child is reading at grade level by 3rd grade. This is a critical turning point for a young learner. Without the ability to read at grade level by 3rd grade students are disadvantaged and this can last their entire life. We must make this a priority. It can be done,” Ruseau said.
“Our programs for before and after school are bursting at the seams. The challenges of staffing these programs are significant and we need to look at better compensating these employees to attract and retain them. I believe we can increase our capacity by increasing the pay of these important employees and offering a modest bonus for returning each year to do the work. Families need these services, and going without them is an unnecessary hardship and stressor.” Ruseau said.
“After telling my story about a childhood of pain from lack of dental care, I was proud of the speed with which our schools were able to implement the new DentaCare program which provides dental cleanings in school,” Ruseau said. “Children suffering from dental related pain come to school with a real inhibitor to learning. This program makes sure children receive some basic care as well as referrals to out of school dentists. The program also helps families without dental insurance apply for Mass Health and pairs them with dentists who accept that coverage.
Paul has been advocating with our legislature to increase school funding and pass other important bills into law that will benefit our children and schools.
Paul earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Keene State College in 1995, and his Master of Science in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University in 2013.
For more information on Paul Ruseau please visit ElectPaul.org or fb.com/PaulRuseau