Milford 2023 Candidate Profile: Martin Montoya, School Committee

MILFORD, MA — Milford's spring town election is coming up on April 4, and Milford Patch has reached out to candidates running in contested races to answer questions about why they're running.

In 2023, only races for planning board and school committee are contested, with the latter attracting the most candidates. Five people are running for seats on the committee, but only one incumbent, Michael Aghajanian, is seeking reelection this year after two-term incumbent Jennifer Parson decided not to run.

Here's what candidate Martin Montoya said about his bid for school committee.

Martin Montoya, 42, works as a Microsoft technology broker

Relevant experience

I am Martin I. Montoya, My family moved to Milford in 1989, a first generation immigrant family. My father was born in Mexico, and my mother in Puerto Rico. I enrolled in the district in 1989 and later graduated from MHS in 1999. My graduating class was the first to experience the implementation of MCAS and lived through parts of the Stacy Middle School renovation project.

Since 2003 I have been working in the community first as a technology contractor, then as a business owner providing technology services to the town and district. In 2014, I bought the old family homestead and made Milford home for our growing family.

For the last 3 years I have served as treasurer of the Milford Cultural Council, and most importantly I have had two beautiful baby girls who will be matriculating to the district in just a few short years.

Why are you running for a school committee seat this year?

I am running to help Milford confront the challenges facing the district. The last decade has seen an unprecedented shift in the size and shape of the student population. The changes in the last five have been unprecedented adding almost two hundred additional students per year to the districts student population.

These changes have pressed almost every school in the district to capacity, nowhere is this more apparent than with Milford High. Additionally, the language skills of the incoming student population has shifted in recent years requiring more investment in the district.

What's one thing you'd like to achieve in 2023 if elected to the school committee?

I want to see Milford excel as a language learning center. Milford has long had one of the best supplemental educational programs in the state. I believe that we have the ingredients and the policy experience to help Milford be the language learning center it is, and to excel at it.

With the construction of a new High school on the horizon (pending acceptance to state program) the district is in the unique position to reimagine how education is fundamentally delivered, this in conjunction with decades of institutional knowledge have the ability to make Milford a center of linguistic excellence.

What can you bring to the school committee?

I have almost 20 years of business ownership in technology services under my belt. In that time I have bid, won, and serviced a number of the surrounding communities providing technology services.

I have a fundamental understanding of Massachusetts procurement and have bid on and been awarded contracts through this process. I have also in these rolls managed the resources of various communities’ technology budgets and needs.

I am also a product of the Milford Public School system, I also grew up a bilingual language learner, and am fluent in Spanish. This gives me the unique perspective of someone who has experienced first hand what it is like to assimilate and become part of a community.

What's one thing lacking in Milford schools that you would like to see change?

1. Facilities!!! Starting with MHS, but also Stacy and the grade schools need attention.
2. Widening performance gap amongst student populations, and its corollary MCAS district performance as a result.
3. Social Emotional Learning – helping students manage healthy social interactions.

The biggest programming gaps in the district are in two primary areas

1. Spanish immersion language learning
2. More robust AP offerings

On language learning: Milford lacks an immersive language learning program. Numerous districts in our region have been offering these programs for over a decade successfully. The incoming student population are stressing the districts ESL/ELL programs, in response the district is in the process of hiring and certifying teachers to support these needs. I believe the answer lies in doubling down on these programs, to intensify services at lower grade levels, and provide more immersive learning to high performing students.

On AP/elective offerings: When I was a student in Milford many moons ago there were AP courses in most primary subjects. Due to budget, population, and achievement changes some of these programs have been done away with. Not only have these programs been cut at the expense of the students, furthermore there are no AP foreign language courses available in a district that has a multilingual population.

What's something the district does well, and how would you support that as a member of the committee? How do you think these issues can be addressed?

1. Pending acceptance to state programming to begin the construction process of the district requires creative thinking. The district is already engaged in some modular construction to meet the immediate demand. But realistically given the demographic changes and the age of the districts infrastructure the High School will be the first of many projects to expand educational services to meet the communities need.
2. Milford has the capacity to invest in language learning skills across all grade levels. I know that the District is already engaged in hiring and certifying teachers that have the language skills to meet the populations needs. It is my goal to assist in any way I can to ensure that we are delivering language skills to enable comprehension and success across all grade levels.
3. Social and emotional learning are in critical need in our post COVID world. The last two years have been devastating across all age groups affecting our children’s ability to engage normally and socially and build healthy social skills. We need to invest in our students to enable them to understand, manage, and communicate in healthy constructive ways.

Previous Milford 2023 candidate profiles:

• Milford 2023 Candidate Profile: Brendan Rickert, School Committee