Newton's Matt Hills Appointed To State Board Of Education

NEWTON, MA- A familiar Newton face was just appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Gov. Charlie Baker appointed former Newton School Committee chairman Matt Hills to take the board seat vacated by Paul Sagan who is stepping down after four years as chairman of the board.

The 11 member board is responsible for approving learning standards, voting on charter school applications, deciding when to intervene in the state's lowest-performing districts, and hiring the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Throughout the past four years the board has implemented new curriculum standards in math, English Language Arts, and history, and created standards for digital literacy and computer science. The board also oversaw the launch of the next generation MCAS test in 2017.

Hills was first elected to the Newton School Committee in 2009 and served until 2018. Throughout his career, he has worked in consulting, investment banking, and private equity industries. He earned a bachelor’s from Brandeis University and a masters’ in business administration from Harvard Business School. Currently, he is a managing director at LLM Capital Partners in Boston.

"I am looking forward to being a really good board member," said Hills in an interview. "It's a really strong board with a really excellent commissioner and a really strong incoming chair and I'm really looking forward to participating and dealing with some of our opportunities and challenges going forward."

Hills isn't the only Newton resident on the board right now: Martin West was appointed by the governor last year. He's a professor of education at the Harvard School of Education and lives in Newton. Maya Mathews who attends Newton North is statewide student representative, she was the student rep on the Newton School Committee when Hills was chairman.

Brookline resident Katherine Craven will replace Sagan as the new chairman.

Patch Reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).