Sudbury 2023 Candidate Profile: Ingrid Mayyasi For Goodnow Board

SUDBURY, MA — Sudbury's spring town election is coming up on March 27, and Sudbury Patch has reached out to candidates running in contested races to answer questions about why they're running.

This year, the races for select board, planning board and Goodnow Library board are the only contested races — although there are plenty of other candidates on the ballot.

Ingrid Mayyasi, 66, School Librarian

Relevant experience

I am a school librarian. I was a library aide for ten years at the Loring Elementary School and am now the librarian at the Riverdale School in Dedham. During my three decades in Sudbury, the Goodnow Library has been part of my life, and I have worked to support the library since I baked for the annual book and bake sale in the early ‘90s. I then joined the Friends of the Goodnow Library, serving as secretary, vice president, and then president. I have been a Goodnow Library Trustee since 2017.

Why are you running for a seat on the library board?

I have been a Trustee for the past six years and I am proud of the many positive changes the Trustees have accomplished guiding the library through the pandemic and other challenges. I love the library and believe in community service. I feel that with my experience as a librarian this is a good way for me to contribute to Sudbury.

If elected, what's one item you'd like to see pass the library board in 2023?

I look forward to working on the goals outlined in the Goodnow Library’s strategic plan, including the goal to increase library visibility at other locations by creating an outreach plan to such places as assisted living facilities and expanding story hours throughout Sudbury. This is another way to expand access to all patrons and residents of Sudbury and will add to outreach already in place. Working with the Senior Center, patrons who are unable to visit the library can arrange to have library materials delivered to their home. And some story hours are offered in Spanish and Chinese.

What's one thing the library is lacking right now, and what would you do about it?

The library needs increased funding to address problems with some employee pay scales and lack of full time positions and when the Library Director submitted her budget for the next fiscal year she requested an increase in funding to address these problems. The Trustees wrote a letter to the Acting Town Manager as well as the Select Board to voice our support for the increased need for the funding. The Goodnow Library is exemplary in so many ways and we want to attract great people to join the staff, but that can be hard to do with only part-time positions and a pay scale lower than other libraries. This results in a turnover and a lack of consistency. It also results in the Director having to spend a considerable amount of time on recruitment and hiring.