Opinion: Chuck Robinson Committed To Children Of Reading

A Letter to the Editor from Gary Nihan:

As a former school committee member, I am supporting Chuck Robinson in his candidacy for re-
election to the School Committee. The Town of Reading is fortunate to have citizens like Chuck
Robinson that devote countless hours to public service! Chuck has dedicated many years to the
Town of Reading with twelve years of service to the school committee and nine years of service
as a member of Finance Committee.

Over my time on the school committee, one of the things that I most admired about Chuck was
his strong leadership skills. Serving four terms as Chair of the School Committee and three years
as Chair of Finance Committee, Chuck has honed his skills as a leader. He knows and
understands the protocol for facilitating and conducting committee work. During the three years
that I worked with Chuck on the School Committee, we faced some of the most challenging
budget cycles. With each fiscal year, the school committee was faced with budget cuts that
would devastate programs within the Reading School System. Due to Chuck’s leadership, the
school committee was able to make the best use of the available funds to fend off most of those
potential cuts. As an example, it was Chuck’s proposal that became the catalyst to save the
middle school language program in FY 2017. Furthermore, Chuck’s support of the recent
override was paramount to successfully preserving teaching positions and academic programs. In
his role as School Committee Chairman, I have found Chuck to be receptive to input from
citizens, administrators, teachers, fellow school committee members and most importantly
students. In addition to his experience on the school and finance committees, Chuck’s many
years of service to youth sports in our community further demonstrates his commitment to the
children of Reading.

For the reasons above, I hope you will join me in voting for Chuck Robinson and re-electing him
to the School Committee on election day.

Sincerely,
Gary M. Nihan, Ed.D