Salem Candidate Profile: Beth Anne Cornell For School Committee

SALEM, MA — Salem will have several contested races in this fall's election, including a 11-way race for four at-large seats on City Council. The preliminary election on Sept. 17 will thin the field of at-large city councilor candidates to eight and the field of school committee candidates to six. Salem Patch asked candidates in the contested races to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Beth Anne Cornell is one of seven candidates running for three open seats on the Salem School Committee. The preliminary election on Sept. 17 will thin the field, with the top six vote-getters appearing on the ballot in the general election on Nov. 5.

Are you running for office in Salem? Contact Dave Copeland at dave.copeland@patch.com for information on being featured in a candidate's profile and submitting campaign announcements to Salem Patch.

Previously on Patch: Salem Election 2019: Here's Who's Running

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

The single most pressing issue facing our district is two-fold: inconsistent stakeholder engagement coupled with poor communication. Stakeholders include all of us: School Committee members, the Superintendent, parents and guardians, students, teachers, principals, district partners, and central office staff.

There can be no informed decision-making without consistent stakeholder engagement.

This requires building structures that will outlast individual school committee members and superintendents. And it means moving away from reactive decision-making and toward proactive and informed strategic thinking.

There is no magic bullet here. We need a multifaceted approach, including:

• Taking an inventory of communication tools and leveraging what we already have to create a transparent and sustainable feedback loop throughout the district and within schools.
• Identifying achievable and focused strategic initiatives informed by stakeholder participation, setting concrete goals, and matching resources to those initiatives.
• Establishing standing stakeholder advisory groups (not ad hoc groups) to help communicate with district leaders about challenges and successes and to help assess school and district initiatives.

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

As Salem School Committee candidate, I offer a unique combination of three important perspectives:

I am a parent. I have been a parent in the Salem Public School system going on 11 years and a Salem resident for 17. I’ve seen many changes and challenges to our district in that time, and throughout I have been an active school community member, serving as PTO Secretary, as a School Council member, as a principal and teacher hiring committee member, and as a Carlton School Innovation Team parent representative. I have advocated for Salem schools at School Committee meetings and volunteered with the Salem Education Foundation and, most recently, with LEAP for Education.

I am a teacher. I am a Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where I have taught writing, literature, and humanities courses for almost 20 years. I have been a member of the American Federation of Teachers for 18 years.

I am an experienced leader. I have proven experience building structures for communication and collaboration in an academic setting. In 2014 I was elected by my colleagues to be the Chair of my university’s Faculty Senate. As Chair, I initiated a university-wide overhaul of our governance structure, which now includes representation from Wentworth’s Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, and students. I was also a college scholarship athlete and the captain of the women’s basketball team at Merrimack College, and have led neighborhood initiatives in downtown Salem.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community

Today I hear many of the same frustrations I heard from parents out on the playground 15 years ago when my kids were just babies, under a different Mayor, School Committee, and Superintendent. What I want as a Salem resident and parent is a School Committee that takes a systematic, long-term approach to achieving success, and that thinks and acts beyond the next headline or election. I want to evolve from a district focused on putting out fires into one that plans deliberately for district-wide excellence.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

As a candidate, I am focused on three issues:

1. Developing processes for engaging and communicating with community stakeholders. In order for the district to improve, we must put in place a consistent structure for collecting broad input and for assessing data, a structure that will outlast individual personalities or district leaders.
2. Improving teacher morale and retention. Teachers throughout the district need to be supported, engaged, and celebrated. As a member of the School Committee, I will work to support a culture in which teachers are encouraged to communicate with district leaders about challenges and successes, and in which teacher expertise are respected by principals and district leaders.
3. Improving School Committee and Superintendent visibility within the community. I want to help create a culture in which all School Committee members proactively engage with the community. School Committee members should promote Salem schools and teachers publicly and often, and should encourage the Superintendent to be a visible participant in the district’s school culture.

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

As I noted above, I served as the Chair of the Faculty Senate at my university. I have also served as the Vice Chair of the Senate and represented faculty and students as a member of the university’s Academic Leadership Team. I have experience managing a budget, writing program curricula, and assessing and approving technology resources. I have participated in university-wide strategic planning and policy-making. I have written and been awarded academic grants, and served on committees to award grants.

In 2018, Wentworth awarded me the President’s Award for Service to the Institute, an honor for which I was nominated by faculty and staff throughout the University.

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Effective leadership requires active listening. Listening takes commitment and practice, and I’m still learning every day.

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

I believe that clear and transparent communication is the key to any organization’s success. We may not always agree on the outcome, but if we understand the path we took to get there, we can foster trust and respect. To that end, I also believe in structure and process. Consistency of process is essential to informed decision-making and clear communication.

Previously Published Salem Candidate Profiles:

Candidates for reelection are marked with an asterisk (*).

City Council, At Large

Domingo J. Dominguez *

Alice Merkl

Maribel Steadman

City Council, Ward 4

Timothy Flynn *

City Council, Ward 6

Megan Riccardi