5 4 3 2 1 zero all an running hello and welcome to TV on TV I'm state representative Tommy veto you're watching Brooklyn Interactive Group today is Thursday April 25th and we have another great show for you today as you know we have completed uh select board and before that we completed housing authority and now we're in the midst of hearing from all of the school committee candidates for our town election which is held on Tuesday May 7th polls are open 700 am to 8:00 pm to remind you there are four school committee candidates three will be elected and uh you get up to three votes on that election on May 7th today our guest is Carolyn th Carolyn thanks for making time to be with us thank you very much for having me this is great so Carolyn you know the campaign Trail is rough and Rocky and busy there's so many events and so many things going on and a lot of my viewers have already seen you at an event or in person but not all have um I know you're from you know the Hinterlands of South Brooklyn so up in North Brooklyn maybe not everybody knows you tell us like what what have you been doing your whole life who is Carolyn th um Carolyn th well thank you so much Tommy for for having me here um virtually yes I do live in South Brooklyn um that's not where I began My Life um grew up in Long Island New York went to um undergraduate school in um Hartford Trinity College and right after college moved up here um to the Boston area so I've been here since 1990 um I've been living in Brooklyn for 14 years uh live with my husband who immigrated uh here from Ireland when he was 25 um we have two kids they've been in the public schools of Brooklyn since kindergarten uh they're now a senior and a freshman uh at the high school uh my daughter is in my senior has been in the SWS program at the High school which is fantastic um I have a master's degree in education from bu my program there was literacy Language and Cultural studies I um worked in in that sort of Education Social Service realm um soon after that taught English as a second language I worked at Fair test also known as the national Center for fair and open testing um worked in kind of direct service Social Service um positions at the Asian-American civic association Jewish vocational service um then shifted to a a more creative career as an interior designer um while I was uh started having kids and dedicating more time to my kids um started getting involved in school and town uh issues and politics around 2010 I've been a town meeting member in Brooklyn in Precinct 16 I'm in my third term as a town meeting member I've been on the advisory committee and I think I'll probably talk a little bit more about that hopefully um very involved in in local government School issues um that's that's kind of me in a nutshell as as related to running for school committee so you have um a variety of professional experiences in education and um you've been involved in town government which means you know that school committee is like the hardest working most underappreciated thing one could possibly do in local government and here you are signing up for it so why you running for school committee why you doing it this year like how did you get to the decision that this is where you wanted to invest invest all sorts of your time and your sort of emotional bandwidth yep well that is a great question um and it's a question that has come up actually for a long time um people you know colleagues in town meeting and advisory um friends school committee members have encouraged me um for a while um to run for school committee I guess because they like my my perspective my way of doing things my way of looking at things [Music] um and um this just seemed like a good time I have a child going off to college so I'll have a bit more time next year um I have a 15-year-old son who's not really coming downstairs at like 8:00 pm on a Thursday looking to play Scrabble um so it just organically started to seem like a good time um I'm definitely you know hearing a lot sort of post-pandemic resettling back into what our school district is going to to be and look like and the direction you know just as I am in the community hearing from from parents um and and non-parent stakeholders in the schools um about concerns um you know things they're thinking about and all of that just kind of coalesced and I actually went and on the the first day that you could pull papers to run I went down to town hall I took out the papers um put them up on my bulletin board was not 100% decided um lived with it for a couple days and then thought all right well I guess I'm I'm doing this so I'm I'm just ready I've been doing this stuff and it's sort of a natural next step with with all of what I I know and I think about and and where I I really enjoy putting my energy I'm um I am that geek who actually watches school committee meetings um luckily don't always have to do it live thanks to zoom and big um I watch I attend school committee subcommittee meetings um because I'm just interested it just sort of my my natural um place of interest so I got to a point where I I just feel like if I'm if I want to be involved know more contribute um to our great town and our great system just gonna go in so let's drill into BHS a little bit you have uh over three and a half years almost four years of experience through one child and nearly a year uh very different than your other child in terms of of covid timing um surely you've got some opinion about BHS that have nothing to do with school committee but perhaps you also have some thoughts about BHS that relate to school committee and management um what's what's on your mind um so that's great I love talking about BHS um in my mind BHS is our Crown Jewel which is is not to disparage our K through 8s which are fabulous and filled with amazing teachers and administrators and commity members um but BHS it is it's an institution it's its own thing um it's big it's complicated it's rich in in in its offerings um I have a tremendous amount of respect um and and time for its leadership um I think Anthony Meyer is a is a great leader uh I think he leads with compassion and by that I mean I feel that he sees his role as you know taking these children who come in as ninth graders they're 14 some 15 um through this time of their development as people as Learners as citizens of the world and launching them which is our job as parents and he's sort of a a parent and and educational and academic guide at the same time um for these over 2,000 young people so that's my love for Anthony Meyer and it's a great school and it offers a ton um as I mentioned my daughter has been in the school within a school program which is tremendous amazing teachers awardwinning um so there really is something for everyone before I moved to Brookline I had a couple of friends who had kids in the high school and my kids were toddlers um and we were living in Rosendale and they were saying come to Brooklyn because it's great the high school is amazing there's something for everyone everyone finds their Niche so I do think the tremendous amount of opportunity the richness of opportunity at the high school um is fantastic it um as Rel to school committee and myself let's see a couple of things we did have um this year there was a little bit of a a bit of a crisis in terms of um too many classes being overcrowded people might have read about that um in brooklyn. newws or or elsewhere um they simply didn't have the the staff um that they needed uh I I think they had asked for you know a certain amount of of FTE or or teachers um the previous couple years didn't get it um and that that caught up with the school so um that's just kind of a good example that I I want to raise in terms of my my participation to date um and involvement in school committee and school issues um when I saw that happening I'm just the kind of person who you know goes to public comment at school committee or talk about it on Facebook communicates with the school committee members that I have relationships with and I really wanted to make sure that this issue of of overcrowded classes at the high school was was elevated and was dealt with um um so in the in the fall it kind of came up and we were told Oh They'll you know we'll figure it out there'll be an audit um it really wasn't rocket science they simply didn't get enough teachers um in the previous couple years budget um and it's the kind of issue that I I I really continued to press on it hopefully politely um and within the bounds of civil discourse but just I I am a person who I'm an advocate type um I do you know I ask good questions hard questions I pull a thread until I get to the end um so um among other people I did keep raising this um class siiz issue um and and if elected to school committee that's certainly the kind of approach that I would would take um pursuing something that needs to be pursued until we understand it and and have a solution um we could also talk about unleveling leveling unleveling should I should I should I go on or do you want before we get there I actually I want to pull a different thre first you talked about budgets you talked about how really the schools were sort of looking for enough money to pay several more teachers and that would have you know obviously brought down the average class size by maybe taking three sections and making it four sections or something like that um within a particular course um there's been several years in the past five where the school committees ask for dollars and the town meeting's ultimate decision via the advisory committee the finance committee to allocate dollars have been a mismatch where the the schools are saying we need this much money and and they're getting less than that um and we've had some operating overrides over over time to address some of that but that sort of structural deficit seems to persist yeah um what what can you do as a school Committee Member to sort of um address that or or change expectations or find some money or what's what's the magic so well unfortunately there probably isn't a Magic Bullet but this is this is a great question for me this is um sort of my my wheelhouse because um of my deep involvement on the on the town side um having been a town meeting member and an advisory committee member and I don't know if everybody knows but the advisory committee is the town's fifth fiscal advisory committee um reviews all of the budgets and all of the warrant articles going into town meeting and I served within advisory on the schools subcommittee so the job there is to dig deep into the school department budget um try to understand it pick it apart see where the money is being spent um what's what's driving the decisions um what are we what are we spending our money on um so I absolutely bring that capacity to unpack the budget to understand the budget and to ask the right questions about the budget um we don't want to have that tension between the town and the schools side we have um the Town School partnership which you know dictates that 60% well it it's technically 50 but it's it is in practice has been 60 60% um of the of the Town total Town budget goes to the schools 40% to the town um and I do like to be clear that I am not somebody who has ever um questioned the bottom line um I I like money being spent on the schools I like education I like our Public Schools my kids are in them I like lots of money being spent on our schools on teaching and learning um and so it all comes down to are we are we using our limited resources and we are limited by prop to and a half and um on top of that the appetite of Voters um to pass overrides which we have to be cognizant of that appetite so our resources are limited um and are we spending them in classrooms are we spending that money on teaching and learning on keeping our teachers happy um avoiding the nightmare scenario that just happened uh with our friends in Newton with a twoe teacher strike um are we using that money so so my priority is is making sure um that the focus is in classrooms on student services and I do bring the perspective and I will bring this perspective um if elected that I do know the kinds of questions to ask um and I and with total respect for our staff and school committee um and we have what I think is an excellent new um Deputy superintendent of Finance Susan given and she's doing what appears to me to be a tremendous job whipping things into shape and providing more information and in a clearer way um but that need is there I think we need we love to talk about transparency it's a little bit of a word but it means information is the information clear is it accessible and I think um I want to be able to know and the high school you know not having enough teachers is a good example not just each year what do we want to do and do we have enough money but how did we get to the point where we don't have enough we we want to do more than we can pay for and we need information going back you know at least five years to see what's been added that's now causing us to have to cut our K through 5 World language program for example so um that's kind of a lot but it's definitely my I I've thought a lot about the budget and I do I I believe that I probably more than any other candidate um running for school committee really have the capacity to um ask the right kinds of questions to answer these questions um that the that the community has that the public has and we need to keep that sorry go ahead no please we need to what we need to be giving information to the public the public to me part of sort of doing Public Service stuff and being engaged in in local government um you know I see public with a capital P the system depends on the public we both mentioned overrides um why don't we do them every year I'm I I think because we don't believe that we would be able to pass them every year um so the system relies on public support in every way um in addition to the fact that the P public simply deserves information um about what's happening um and decisions that are made and the rationale behind those decisions um but that that interface between the public and what we're doing is really important to me on a on a meaning level and on a practical function level it's essential that we provide the public with the knowledge that that they need to understand what's happening in order for um the public to support what's happening so I'm a Public School parent my children go to pierce which means I get emails from the superintendent I get emails from from the principal I get emails from the Pierce PTO because I'm involved in local government I also get email to me every single school committee and subcommittee agenda and of course the meetings are on Zoom um what that seems like a lot of communication is it the right communication is it the right amount of communication um it sounds like you've got some sense that it's not as good as it could be but but give us more there sure um that's a great question and yes we do we do get those emails my sense is um that and and that is one one thing I would um I would say would be sort of an initiative I might bring um school committee is not a super much like a big I have this initiative kind of role um I think the community parents and and non-parents um need to be getting more substantive um information about again the the direction of the district um curriculum new initiatives decisions we saw this um with the unleveling conversation at the high school I think that really Illustrated um a place where parents were not made aware of let's dive into that a little bit first um tell the viewers what you what that you're talking what is deleveling or unleveling or leveling some of the viewers don't know and then kind of walk us through um where your head is at We we've only got about five minutes left in the show so we gotta get into it when I'm talking about we're having fun um so tell us about leveling and deling and the stateof thee art in April 2024 okay so um as I said hug huge fan of Brookline High School um has served generations and generations um of of students Brookline students materials free students um Medco students who we are who we welcome to the community um so unleveling is is an initiative that um was part of um something that's that's called reimagining 9th grade um I'll try to I'll try to keep it short but unleveling specifically is an initiative um that was being proposed by BHS leadership um to replace sorry I'm gonna have to back up at the high school there are different levels of courses offered in most of the in the core subjects um in every grade 9th through 12th so there's um standard level honors level and in some um in some subject matters advanced level and then you get into AP courses um and there was an initiative is an initiative um to unlevel the ninth grade meaning that the honors and standard level wouldn't be offered and everybody would be um together in one in one course and I won't get into sort of the the pedagogy um it's an it's an intriguing idea there are various reasons that the high school um has explained that they um that they are thinking about doing this um what happened this year was that that this was sort of about to happen and parents really didn't know um so eighth grade parents um and younger uh felt a bit blindsided when they when they learned um when their kids started signing up for courses that there was no more um honors um English or Standard English and also that there um was a a plan to to unlevel science and math in ninth grade um in the next couple of years um and this was a really interesting conversation um parents uh organized um I was actually sort of part of that organization um I don't have a personal horse in this race I'm not going to have any more ninth graders but this was something that I had been aware of that was coming down the pike because I pay attention um I had the sense personally that there was going to be a strong reaction to this in the community um and and there was and I started sort of hearing about it in all different places um so parents um started having a conversation brought their concerns to the school committee uh in a way that I thought was was really effective um I think parents were very clear very polite articulated their concerns um they asked to have more information about what was the rationale what are the goals and data um is this initiative there there was a pilot of this unleveled course um and parents were asking the question you know is this doing what you want it to do and we're not even sure what you want it to do because that hasn't been articulated so to be continued um the school committee then decided to pause the complete unleveling and to stick with this Pilot Course that's unleveled and the honors and the standard um for now while the high school sort of works on collecting data and communicating that and and that's the kind of thing that I think um parents need to to know more about uh before those kinds of pretty big structural decisions are made made um because that people came here people we come here for the schools um so I think the big decisions um should be at least shared if not ideally I think also seeking input and and and incorporating that input Community input into decision making so wow that's a lot you um have a website I have a website it is Carolyn fall. and I can see uh your long sign behind you that's c a r o l YN Carolyn Thal t h l l um and folks of course can go there and learn more about you I've got about one more minute how's the campaign going tell us about the actual Act of campaigning how's that going it's great it's really really hard work uh which I love I love working hard I should say that too about our schools I I want our schools to have really high standards um for achievement in all different ways because I believe in hard work uh it makes me feel good it makes me feel engaged in the world in a meaningful way I love meeting people having these conversations um it's super super fun and um I'll also be glad when it's over yeah I know it's a lot of work and um I know it can be really joyful work having run more than one campaign myself um I want to thank you for coming on the show uh folks you've been watching TV on TV you've been watching Brooklyn Interactive Group you know we have an election coming up on Tuesday May 7th polls are open 7 AM to 8 pm and you know this week and next week Tuesday and Thursday at 2:30 I'll have a school committee candidate and we'll have the same sort of conversation uh get to know all of the candidates for school committee three will win out of four candidates which means uh we the voters really have some meaningful impact I hope that you will continue watching TV on TV I hope you'll continue supporting Brooklyn Interactive Group and I hope to see you on the polls on Tuesday May 7th Carolyn thanks for coming on the show thank you Tommy and I feel fine left off as the clock is started that's one for one [Music]