Rochester 2023 School Board candidate Anne Grassie
Name: Anne Grassie
Education: Granite State College degrees in early childhood education and behavioral science.
Occupation: Rochester Child Care Center, family services coordinator and supervisor of the nutrition program.
Political or civic experience highlights: Current School Board Ward 4. Past School Board for at large and Ward 5. State representative 1994-2014. Boards of directors for Stafford County Public Health and safety. Strafford County YMCA executive board and past chair for NH Child Care Advisory Council. NH Children's Trust.
What would be your top three priorities if you are elected?: Continue serving on the joint building committee for the new school due to open in 2025. Bring more services to the students for behavioral and mental health. Work with the city to secure more state funding for our schools and prevent the state Board of Education from eliminating educational standards currently in place for 10 years.
How should the school district handle requests to remove books from the library or curriculum?: Investigate the particular issues for families and comply with our policies to provide appropriate access to educational materials.
What should the school district do to ensure the continued safety of the school community?: Work with city, state and federal programs to keep improving the safety of our buildings and properties, One current example is using grant monies to put safety film on all ground floor windows to prevent intruders from damaging and entering buildings.
How, if at all, would you work to strengthen the district’s mental health and wellness efforts for students?: We should continue look for ways to bring mental health and behavioral health professionals into our schools. With the shortage of people working in this field here in New Hampshire we should start to create pathways for these careers, because the need is so great since the pandemic. Offering professional development on an ongoing basis for our staff to recognize and mediate students needs in the classrooms.
How can the school district succeed at recruiting and retaining high quality staff?: We need to continue to offer more competitive pay and benefits. Not an easy thing to do when communities our size have more tax dollars available per student to attract good teachers. Making sure we receive more adequacy dollars from the state is necessary for our state representatives to act on.
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Rochester 2023 School Board candidate Anne Grassie
