The main event at Rochester’s Candidates Night on May 15 was the race for two open seats on the Rochester School Committee.
The May 22 Town Election sets incumbents Jason Chisholm and Robin Rounseville against two challengers, Matthew Bache and Joshua Trombly, for three-year terms. Old Rochester Regional School Committee incumbent Matthew Monteiro is also facing a challenge from Stacie Noble-Shriver.
The candidates’ event began with opening statements from these incumbents and challengers, as well as from the contenders for races for the Park Commission and the Library Trustees.
Park Commission incumbent Kenneth Ross is facing a challenge from Nathaniel Reece. Trustee incumbents Shauna Makuch and Kelley Medeiros are being challenged for one of two open seats by Portia Silk.
But when the time came for questions from the residents crowding the Senior Center meeting room, most of them lined up at the microphone for the Rochester School Committee race.
Charles Morgan asked the four candidates about flyers he had received in the mail offering that three candidates can “protect the children,” specifically Noble-Shriver, Bache and Trombly, paid for by Rochester Citizens for Government. “Protect them what?” Morgan said he wanted to know.
All four candidates said they did not know about these flyers. Rounseville and Chisholm responded to the message within them in a general sense. Protecting the children “is a given,” Chisholm said. Bache added, “I believe all of our students should be protected, physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
Trombly saw the topic of the flyers as an indication of recent divisions over school policy, an apparent reference to recent disputes over the types of books that should be carried in the school library. He noted that after a recent school committee strategic planning meeting he wasn’t seeing a lot of respect for a variety of opinions, which led him to promise, “If I’m elected, there wouldn’t be a day I wouldn’t treat all parents, students and teachers with respect.”
The next question also focused on the issue of what books are right or wrong to be in the school library and who gets to decide.
Resident Sandra Bock asked the four candidates about how they would compromise and decide going forward on what books should stay and not stay in the school library for children “who are not protected at home by a wonderful family, that safety net that they can fall back and ask their parents on how things are?” Bock noted the last such vote to remove a book was 50-50 on whether it should stay or go. She asked how will they address parent rule within this issue and better compromise in the future.
Chisholm called it a fair but complex question. People are installed in ORR’s Central Office and the school system because of their expertise, he said, and residents need to trust those decisions or find a way to be hired to replace those people. Otherwise, he said, “we have mandates and a process we must follow and stick to it.”
Trombly said if the vote is 50-50, “There needs to be more compromise, more discussion.”
Rounseville said, “I believe the compromise is in place. We have a way for parents to opt out of books they don’t want their children to be exposed to. I will agree we need to do a better job of making that known. But we are a public education system. We represent all constituents.”
“I pride myself on being pro-active, not reactive,” Bache said. “I would have had a special session for all the parents to talk it out so no one would feel slighted.”
The candidates were then asked how they will enhance communication with the community. Bache said he likes Trombly’s idea to have open comment at the beginning of each meeting rather than at the end, but he added he would like to see more diversity in the chair, switching to a different chairperson every year. “And we could just get every parent to be heard,” he said.
Trombly agreed that public comment needs to be made before items are voted on. Rounseville said the perception that the board didn’t listen because the vote didn’t go that person’s way is a misconception and unfair. She cautioned that public comment at the start of a meeting could be lengthy and leave less time for the committee to get its important work done.
Chisholm said he believes a lot of people are being heard but not getting a response to their concerns. He emphasized exercising more transparency, letting people know how things work the way they do, with its state mandates and internal procedures. “We’re a complex, hybrid school district that kind of trips up some of our plans. People need to understand how we work. We need to make the changes that we can.”
The Candidates Night was held by the Council on Aging in preparation for the May 22 Town Election at the Senior Center, 67 Dexter Lane.
Rochester Candidates Night
By Michael J. DeCicco