[00:00:03] My name is Glenn Kessler and along with uh our friends at the Daily Item and my good buddy Steve Akonei, we found out that there wasn't going to be a candidates night that where where you
[00:00:19] the residents would be able to provide questions so that the candidates for both races would be able to speak to you directly instead of debate. each other. We thought that was a better idea. So, this evening, um, we're going to start
[00:00:37] really soon, but I wanted to just thank everybody for coming either here or if you're watching remotely and know that, uh, this is for you. This is how we get to be better informed about, um, our candidates. And I certainly hope that at
[00:00:53] the end of the evening, you all will have a better idea who you think is best to represent our town because Lord knows we need good representation, don't we? All right, without further ado, my friend Sophia is going to start out. So, I'm going to
[00:01:10] go like this. Thank you so much and thank you everybody for um being here tonight. My name is Sophia Harris and I'm the editorial director for the Daily Item. Um, we're gonna start off by doing some
[00:01:27] introductions. So, sitting next to me is Martha Driscoll Caesar, a longtime educator and community member with a career spanning teaching, school leadership, and educational mentorship. She has served as a principal and director of learning
[00:01:42] and remains active in education through roles at Endicott College and other institutions. in Swamcott. She has contributed as a town meeting member, arts and council participant, and youth volunteer. She brings a strong commitment to
[00:01:59] education, community involvement, and public service. John Jantis is a legal and financial professional currently serving as senior counsel at State Street Corporation with prior experience at the US Department of
[00:02:14] Treasury. A specialist in anti-moneyaundering and financial regulation. He has contributed to national policy work including co-authoring the bank secretary act examination manual. Jantis
[00:02:30] has also been involved in local school advisory efforts and is seeking to bring his experience in public policy, governance, and problem solving to serve the Swamcot community. So, we have some questions for our school committee candidates here
[00:02:45] tonight. Um how this is going to work is each candidate is going to give a brief introduction of themselves and then I will ask a question and um they will answer the same question and we'll go back and forth from that and these are questions provided to us by daily item
[00:03:02] reader readers as well as swam Scott tide readers. Um so Martha if you would like to introduce yourself. >> Well thank you Sophia and thank you for that nice introduction. I appreciate it. Um, I will tell you this is something that I never ever thought I would be doing. I am not a really political
[00:03:19] person. Um, but a few months back my activities started to wind down and I thought, how can I give back to the town? It's about time I gave back to the town. Um, so I decided that given that I had the good fortune of becoming a teacher in Swarmscott, my very first
[00:03:34] job, and I taught here for 17 years and loved every minute of it, I thought, what better way to do this would be to do something for the schools that I've never done before. So therefore, someone said, how about running for school committee? And I thought, hm, that's an interesting thought. So here I am. Um, I
[00:03:51] hope um that I can support the schools in the way that I always wanted the schools to be supported. Um, I hope that I can provide the community a greater sense of what happens in schools and how we fund the schools. Um, and I appreciate everyone who's here tonight.
[00:04:07] Thank you. >> Thanks. So, good evening everyone and and thank you again for having me here tonight. Uh, for those of you who might not know who I am, my name is John Jantis and I've served on the Swamp Scott School Committee for the past six
[00:04:22] years and I'm running for a third term because I care about the community, not just as a parent, but as someone whose roots here go back to my childhood. Um, I'm looking at Gan over here. U, my grandmother actually owned the Richdale
[00:04:38] on Humphrey Street where Lincoln's Landing is now. So, I remember spending time here as a kid uh with my grandmother. So my my connection to the town goes way way back. And Swampscott to me has always been a place where uh families put down roots and where people care deeply about their schools. Uh on
[00:04:57] the school committee, I have worked to be a steady, pragmatic, and accessible voice. someone who shows up, listens, and asks tough questions to make sure every decision we make as a committee reflect the community's priorities and
[00:05:12] that every dollar is spent wisely. I've also been directly involved in collective bargaining, including negotiations with the teachers, tutors, education support professionals, administrative staff, and custodial staff. That work required balancing
[00:05:28] fiscal responsibility with supporting the people who make our schools strong. And we approach each negotiation in a way that is direct, fair, and focused on reaching sustainable agreements. Over the past several years, as everyone
[00:05:44] knows, we have faced real challenges, budget pressures, leadership transitions, and evolving student needs. Through it all, I've focused on my time on the committee on being thoughtful, balanced, and maintaining trust with the community, families, and educators.
[00:06:02] Right now, I think that Swampscott faces three key challenges. Long-term financial stability, supporting and retaining teachers and staff, and ensuring every student has the support they need. Swampscott is a special place. I valued
[00:06:17] the opportunity to serve so far and I'm prepared to continue the work ahead. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. So for my first question, um Martha will answer first and then John will answer second. What perspective or skills would you
[00:06:34] bring to the school committee that are currently missing? >> They're currently looking. Um well I think um after many years of working as a teacher and school administrator I have learned how to listen to people and how to respect difference of opinion.
[00:06:49] And I think at times in the last short time there's been a little bit of feeling that if you express opinions that are different from someone else's those opinions aren't respected. I hope that I can bring that back to the school committee and have us be aware that
[00:07:06] there are differing opinions in our committee. It doesn't mean in our community and it doesn't mean that we don't support schools. It just means we may have questions and I hope that I can bring that back to the school committee.
[00:07:22] >> What perspective or skills would you bring to the school committee that are currently missing? So maybe I'll take a slightly different approach since I'm on the school committee, but I think um having a new superintendent uh who's been in the job
[00:07:38] less than a year, um the school committee made a very conscious decision to put very measurable priorities and goals in place. that one of our one of our goals besides pick or one of our priorities besides picking the superintendent is to actually um
[00:07:54] evaluate them, measure them um for job performance and we made a very conscious decision to put uh very specific goals in place for the superintendent to meet during the year. So I think um compared
[00:08:10] to the the previous superintendent who' been in the role for quite a while that we did that but not quite to the extent we're doing now with a with a new superintendent. So I think as the year evolves and we start um we start conducting those evaluations performance
[00:08:26] evaluations um I I think that it'll be beneficial for all of us us as a committee the superintendent for his for his role. Um, and that again that's something that's my time on the committee. It was basically the same super the entire time until recently. So
[00:08:43] that's something new that that I think uh myself and the rest of the committee will bring to the table. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. My second question, how should the town balance school reserve funds with broader municipal budget needs?
[00:08:59] And John, that is first for you. Well, I think as I as I said in my opening statement, uh the I think everyone on the school committee right now um shepherds every dollar um
[00:09:16] scrupulously and want to make sure that it's spent. Sorry, my mic is okay. Uh we watch every dollar scrupulously and we want to make sure that uh uh it's they're going to the right places. Um I
[00:09:33] think as as far as reserve funds, um those are conversations that have been ongoing um between the town and the school committee and between the school committee and our um our budget director for the schools. And I I think my
[00:09:51] takeaway from those conversations for the last few months as we kind of um went through budget season. Uh I I think for me it was really important to hear why we might need reserve funds in place um for for budget stability. I think
[00:10:08] that's kind of the the term I was hearing and and made sense to all of us on the committee that being able to have funds in reserve to plan ahead. Um, you know, I'm thinking like circuit breaker and for special ed and things of that
[00:10:25] nature. Uh, it just really helps when the school is putting together the budget with with the administration. It just helps us um have have a little more certainty than we might have. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much.
[00:10:41] How should the town balance school reserve funds with broader municipal budget needs? >> Would you say read say that again, please? >> Yeah, of course. How should the town balance school reserve funds with broader municipal budget needs? >> One of the things that um came to my attention in the last couple of years is
[00:10:57] how little I really knew about the school budget and what happens to the school budget and the town budget. In the last year or two, I've started to pay a lot more attention to um listen to school committee meetings and listen to finance committee meetings. And I guess I have a lot of questions about what are
[00:11:14] reserve funds and how can one department have reserve funds and other departments may not have reserve funds and I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to get my own understanding of what's happening in the school budget and the town budget up to a place where I can then share with other people. I think also when I talk
[00:11:31] to members of the greater community, people who may not pay attention to all the meetings that are going on, I think we need to somehow get the information out to the larger community. I think people need to understand what happens in the budget, how the budget's developed, and how if the budget has
[00:11:47] money in it that's not used, what happens to that? Does it come back to the town so that our taxes do not go up as much or do they stay in a reserve fund? Um, so those are the things that I'm going to be learning myself and hopefully as I learn them, I will be sharing them with members of the community as well.
[00:12:04] >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. The next question from daily item readers is, following recent student concerns about racism at Swamcott High School, do you see this as primarily a school issue or a broader community issue and what actions would you support to address it?
[00:12:23] Um this is something that is um very close to my heart because I um have worked in the school system with the MECO program and always felt that there were some parts of it that as a community and as a school that we weren't responding to the kids and their
[00:12:38] needs. Um, I happened to hear the um speaker at um uh the the shore event of Black History Month and I thought to myself, I cannot believe I'm sitting here all these years later and I'm listening to a young woman feeling that she was a fish out of water, that she
[00:12:55] never really connected. And I've spent a lot of time thinking about that. Um I think it's both. I think it's um I know when I was in the schools, it is something that we aren't aware of how we don't accept difference. Um, I think as a community sometimes we miss that as
[00:13:10] well. I think we claim that we are a welcoming community. We want to be that way, but I know plenty of people who have not felt welcome for different reasons. So, one of the things I think we do is I I was going to when I meet with the school committee when I'm on it, I want to ask those questions is
[00:13:26] what can we do as a school for kids who are different and what can we do as a community for people who may be a little different than what we expect. I will say one thing that is really um uh happy for me is that I live near the new elementary school and the one good thing
[00:13:42] that when I walk by Reese's time I see so many different kinds of children playing on the playground and to me that's a sign of a new future in Swam. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Following recent student concerns about
[00:13:57] racism at Swamcott High School, do you see this as primarily a school issue or a broader community issue? and what actions would you support to address it? >> It's a great question and I I would say it's actually probably a little bit of both. Um I know here in Swampscott um
[00:14:16] you know Martha mentioned the Medco program. I know that the the director of that has has um done a great job in community outreach to um address exactly what Martha touched on as far as making
[00:14:31] students who are thinking of coming to the community and actually do come here through that program uh feel welcome um feel like they belong uh be a part of the community and and uh want to make a long-term commitment. Um, as a matter of fact, I just I read a very short article
[00:14:47] this morning, so I really can't speak to the detail, but I guess there was some sort of incident in Lynfield and um and you know, they're having, you know, meetings to to discuss that and what the impact to their community is. And it it you know, again, to me, it just shows
[00:15:03] that, you know, it's it's not just here in Swampscott. This is this is a much broader thing. And you know on the school committee we've been very cognizant of you know any issue that um you know kind of you know goes into this
[00:15:20] area and um I think our expectation is is that you know if there are issues or questions that they're addressed promptly and satisfactoryily. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. The next few questions I'm going to read were submitted by the Swamot Tides.
[00:15:39] Given ongoing budget pressures, what specific strategies would you use to control costs without compromising educational quality? So, as I as I said a moment ago, we just
[00:15:54] we just went through our um very lengthy budget process and submitted our budget to the town and it was um what I would call an extremely barebones budget. Um we want to maintain
[00:16:11] um our cadre of strong educators here. So I think um we we go into these budget sessions with that in mind. It's like we want to maintain the talented teachers and staff that we have. So we have to budget for that and
[00:16:29] we want to maintain um strong student outcomes and we look at what are the top priorities that that the school district needs to to try to achieve and um if there are
[00:16:46] things that maybe aren't the top priority uh that can be moved to a different year. Maybe there's there's something that is not a top priority for this year and because of budget concerns uh can wait then uh again that's that's something that will have to be
[00:17:02] discussed. Um but throughout the whole process the the goal has been the goal has been to focus on strong educators and strong student outcomes and everything kind of flows from that.
[00:17:18] >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Given ongoing budget pressures, what specific strategies would you use to control costs without compromising educational quality? >> I think there's always going to be a challenge in public school education
[00:17:34] between a wants and a needs kind of budget. So, everybody wants certain things in a school budget, but we may only be able to pay for what we need in the school budget. So, I think that looking at a budget, as John said, you have to go through it really line by line, which I have not done yet, and I
[00:17:50] hope to do when I'm on the school committee. Um, but I would also say that my philosophy would always be that if we have to cut back, we would cut back at those places furthest away from children in the classroom. The most important thing we have to preserve is how we teach those children and high school
[00:18:07] students as well, not just little ones. Um and we need to look at that when we decide that we have to cut certain things. So for example, there may be a line item that has um a need but the need is really a want and it's really far away from what happens in the classroom. Those are the places where I
[00:18:24] think we as a school committee have to make those decisions and say those are the places we might have to cut. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. The resignation of a previous committee chair raised concerns about misinformation. How would you work to
[00:18:41] rebuild trust among committee members and with the community? I think you read one of my paragraphs. Um well, first of all, I'm running for those two years, that two years of that term because Amy did resign. Um it it was an upsetting time for me to hear
[00:18:58] about what was going on um within the committee and within the community about the school budget. And I think that was one of the reasons why I really wanted to be part of this to see if I could make a difference. I think I go back to saying that we need to respect difference and that difference is not
[00:19:14] necessarily just the color of skin. It's also difference of opinion. So, my opinion may be different than yours, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to criticize you for your opinion. It just means we have a difference of opinion. And I think there were things said at different times at different meetings
[00:19:30] that really were not respectful and did not show our best side um as a community. So, I'm hoping that I can help bring that back. >> Wonderful. Thank you. The resignation of a previous committee chair raised concerns about
[00:19:46] misinformation. How would you work to rebuild trust among committee members and with the community? >> It's a great question, Sophia. And you know, I think for me one of my primary goals in the in the
[00:20:02] time I've been on the school committee has been to be a consensus builder and be a bridge between different folks on the school committee and and frankly if someone is really um being a particular outlier for whatever reason to say you
[00:20:21] know what's going on or why are you acting in this particular way or is there something that we're missing here that we should be talking about to better understand what your concerns are. Um, you know, for me it all comes
[00:20:36] down to communication and accountability and having good open lines of communication, understanding one another for me has worked I think very well in working with the other
[00:20:52] folks on the committee. Uh it's unfortunate what happened. Um you know, as we move forward here, I'm looking forward to working with Martha and uh and with Katie and uh I've already had conversations um
[00:21:08] since since we filed our paperwork to do that. And uh I look forward to again having that open communication. And uh I guess just to add one more thing just I would say proactive communication. I'd rather have those conversations before
[00:21:24] something blows up and deal with it rather than after after the fact. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Um all righty. Well, that concludes the portion of questions for the school committee. Um, now I would like to ask each member to just give a
[00:21:42] closing statement about, you know, anything else you would like the community to know about your leadership and what you hope to bring to the community. So John, if you could go first. >> Okay. Thanks. So again, thank you again for having me here. That went pretty quick actually,
[00:21:59] didn't it? So thank you again for having me here. Um, and um, and thank you to Martha for throwing a hat into into the ring and stepping into this process. Um, I I think these conversations matter because um, the decisions ahead are not
[00:22:16] simple ones. They're going to require careful judgment and understanding how the district operates and a willingness to work through challenges in a thoughtful and steady way. Uh to me, Swampscott is a community that cares deeply about its schools and that's a strength. It's it also means
[00:22:33] expectations are high and the responsibility to get decisions right matters. Whether it's budgeting, supporting our educators, or setting direction with new leadership, the focus has to remain on what will serve students, not just now, but over time.
[00:22:49] Over the past six years, I've developed a clear understanding of that balance between listening and deciding, between supporting and holding accountable, and between immediate needs and long-term sustainability. And that's the approach that I'll continue to bring to the role.
[00:23:05] Thank you very much for having me tonight. >> You thanks. Um, thank you for having us here tonight. Um, one of the things reading over the responsibilities of the school committee because I'm trying to do a lot of reading to get caught up to speed. It really solidified my reason to declare
[00:23:20] my candidacy. One of the responsibilities of the school committee is to actively seek input from a variety of stakeholders, listen carefully to all viewpoints, and maintain a broad understanding of the important issues confronting the schools and the town.
[00:23:36] Over the last few years, questions about the school budget and expression of differing points of view have not always been welcomed or respected. I want town residents be be able to ask questions to find the information they need to understand the op the understand the
[00:23:51] school budget and the operation of the schools without being told that they're not supporting the school. They just want to find out information. The other thing that I think is incredibly important is how do we find out that information? In the last four weeks, I have spent so many hours trying to find
[00:24:08] out information about the school budget. And I personally can tell you I'm a teacher. I was a school leader. I know how to develop a budget. I know all those things. I have a hard time understanding what I find and also trying to find where it is. So, one of
[00:24:24] the things I really hope to do on the school committee is let people know where they can find the information when they have questions. They want to come and ask questions, but we also want to be able to provide the places where they can go to get the answers. So, that's going to be my goal. Once elected, I
[00:24:39] really hope that I can work with other committee members to strengthen the community relationships. I think the town residents do care deeply about the education of our children, but they want to clearly understand how our tax dollars are being spent to provide that quality education in our schools. And
[00:24:57] that's my goal. Um, and that's what I hope to do on the school committee. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Well, thank you both for joining us here tonight.
[00:25:12] Swam Scott is so lucky to have such qual um qualified individuals running for these positions. So, we're going to take a brief break, get our select board uh candidates up here and then we'll be back for the select board portion of
[00:25:27] this evening. Thank you so much.