Arlington Election Profile: Paul Schlichtman For School Committee

ARLINGTON, MA – Arlington will have several contested races in the June 6 Town Election, including School Committee, Select Board and Town Clerk. Arlington Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles ahead of the election.

Paul Schlichtman, 66, is running for re-election for a three-year seat on the School Committee. Schlichtman is a retired educator with 37 years of experience as a public school teacher and administrator. He worked for the Lowell Public Schools as a principal and data coordinator for 19 years.

Schlichtman lives in Arlington with his wife, Rieko Tanaka, a Town Meeting member and elected member of the Arlington Town Democratic Committee.

In addition to serving on the School Committee, Schlichtman is a Town Meeting member and Massachusetts Association of School Committees representative on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, School & District Accountability & Assistance Advisory Council.

He has previously been a member of the Minuteman Regional Technical Vocational School Committee and president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

Are you running for office in Arlington? Contact Alex Newman at alex.newman@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate profile and submitting campaign announcements to Arlington Patch.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The most pressing issue is the COVID closure and restoring the system as we move toward reopening our buildings. In many ways these decisions are beyond the school committee, as the state and local public health folks will be defining what we may do in terms of opening our buildings. We need to budget and plan for the possibility of remote learning as well as in-person instruction for the next school year.

The most pressing issue that the committee faces is the hiring of a new superintendent, and as the chair of the search process committee, I have been working with my colleagues and our consultant to develop an open process where all stakeholders can have a voice. We also need to seek a diverse candidate pool to choose from.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My experience as a central office administrator gives me critical insight into the selection of a new superintendent. My work on statewide issues, including the defeat of the charter school expansion ballot question, gives me experience in building statewide support for issues facing Arlington. My experience as a school committee puts me in a position to do the behind-the-scenes work of the committee, from chairing the policy committee to being a school committee member on our negotiating teams.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

At this point, I feel energized as a productive member of the school committee, and I enjoy working with my talented colleagues. We have considerable work ahead of us, including the challenges of recruiting and hiring a new superintendent, and operating a world-class high school in the midst of a construction site. I love the work we are doing together, and I don’t see this as a good time to walk away from the significant tasks we will face in the next three years.
We need to work with the building committee to successfully run a world-class high school in the middle of a construction site. This will be a tightly choreographed dance, with big plans on a very small site.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have considerable experience in local school governance. I served four years on the Minuteman School Committee (1997-2001), and 14 years on the Arlington School Committee. I chose not to run for re-election in 2007, after serving two terms. I returned in 2012 to fill the vacancy created when Joe Curro moved to the Select Board, and won election to the seat in 2013, 2014, and 2017. I have served in Town Meeting for 24 years (1993-2003 and 2006-present).

I have also played a statewide leadership role, having served as President of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees in 2004. I have played an active role in reforming charter school funding and governance, including opposition to Question 2 in 2016, and I am working to reform educator licensure to make it a more professional process that encourages qualified candidates to consider a career in Massachusetts.

I also bring the perspective of a professional educator who has worked primarily in urban districts. I have been an elementary teacher, a high school math teacher, a principal, and a central office administrator. My undergraduate degree from the City University of New York had a dual major in elementary education and psychology; my graduate degrees from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education included extensive work in psychology, research methodology, and statistics.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am also proud of the work of Arlington educators, who have worked strategically to improve our schools for all students. Our educators have embraced our town’s desire to have a school system that is welcoming to all, and is equitable in meeting the needs of all of our families.
While Arlington doesn't have extreme disparities, we do recognize we have work to do to bring equity to the system. Closing achievement gaps, and addressing social-emotional needs of our students, were in the forefront of our 2019 Proposition 2.5 override requests.