Wayland 2023 Candidate Profile: Craig Gruber, School Committee

WAYLAND, MA — Wayland's school committee race will likely be the most closely watched in the April 25 election with four newcomers vying for two seats being vacated by incumbents.

One-term member Chris Ryan and longtime member Jeanne Downs have both opted not to run for reelection this year. Candidates Craig Gruber, Dovie King, Erin Mueller and Christina Rodrigo have filed to run for the seats. Gruber ran unsuccessfully for a school committee seat last year, while King ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for a select board seat.

The two new members will join the committee at an inflection point. In February, the committee put Omar Easy on leave from his job as superintendent, and has not yet given a reason for the divorce. Easy then filed a discrimination complaint with the state against Wayland; Ryan and Vice Chair Ellen Greico were also named in the complaint.

Since then, the committee has voted to hire a former Newton superintendent to take the helm for one year as interim superintendent — an indication that Easy will likely not return to the job.
Several other key Wayland school leaders have also departed, and the district will begin searching for replacements soon.

To help Wayland voters get to know the school committee candidates better, Wayland Patch sent each candidate questions about why they're running for a seat. Here's how candidate Craig Gruber responded.

Why are you running for the school committee in 2023?

I am running for school committee to renew our town's commitment to excellence and support of our schools, teachers, staff, and of course, our students. We need to examine our budgeting and spending to ensure that we are the best stewards of our resources as taxpayers, and that we deliver on the promise of the best education for all of our students.

I am running for Wayland School Committee because I am passionate about Wayland. I am a BAYS youth soccer coach (come and watch my daughter on our 5th grade team!), and will be speaking this spring as part of Wayland Public Library's Great Presenters (Tuesday May 9th, 'Evidence of Things Unseen: How National Security Influences Actions Home and Abroad').

I am engaged and passionate. I'm direct. I'm transparent. I've been to a lot of school committee meetings over the past two years, and I want to address issues and problems when they are small ones. If we ignore them or wish them away, they don't get better, and we don't get accountability.

The job of the School Committee is to supervise the superintendent and make policy. As a teacher and administrator, I have experience with that. We need straight talk and a serious approach to the decisions that will shape our town for years to come.

The removal of Superintendent Omar Easy has been the top issue in the district recently. How would you grade the school committee on its handling of that situation, and what would you have done differently?

Much of that decision happened in executive session, so I am not privy to their process and can’t grade them. What would make me a valuable addition to the committee when new difficult decisions arise is my experience.

Decisions are hard to make. My laboratory at American University is a decision science lab. We take a research-based approach to helping people and groups solve hard problems. These include initial decisions, and “fallout decisions” which are the result of initial actions. In many situations, taking a deliberate approach to mapping out all possible outcomes from a decision helps people understand the impacts and potential outcomes of a course of action.

We also need to be collaborative, and that needs to include pointing out the problems. This approach is preventative, rather than reactive. We work on the little things before they become big things. In leadership literature, we talk about developing leaders. When leaders are facing conflict, we should take the approach to coach them, not to the point where we are asking them to give in, but only to keep talking it through and working on figuring out how to do better. I want to bring my experience and expertise to the table so that we can collaboratively and collectively do what's best for the district.

The school committee has not said why it put Easy on leave. Do you feel the public has a right to know why that happened?

If elected to School Committee, I will focus on transparency. We hear the word “transparency” used a lot in relation to the past two years, but how could we change our approach moving forward to actually achieve it?

We need to make important information and updates more accessible, so Waylanders can follow the issues school committee is trying to work through without needing to attend meetings or look up past minutes, which very few residents have time to do. I believe the answer to this is in part a simple one: regular and accurate biweekly updates to the community. I would love to lead the effort, in collaboration with the rest of the committee, to provide written updates to the community every other week. By proactively communicating the thoughts and issues facing the school committee, we can bring increased transparency to our community moving forward.

We also need to engage in an exercise to dive deep into looking at our finances for the schools. Over the past few years there have been many hires made, some of which were made on grants and rolled to base, some of which may be redundant positions. We need to do a baseline comparison of positions from 2018 (our last non-pandemic year) and see where positions have been added and/or subtracted and look at that inline with enrollment to figure out where the spending has gone. We need to be fiscally responsible as well as transparent, not as a one-time push, but as an ongoing process.

We need to take the time to make decisions which will pivot Wayland to a great future, focused on bringing the community together and excellence for our children’s education.

Do you want Easy to return as superintendent, or do you feel the district should sever his employment permanently?

No, I do not want him to return.

In addition, we need to ensure that the next set of finalists for superintendent are qualified for the position. We need to establish clear expectations for experience and education, as well as prioritizing interviewing prior direct reports. It is important to have feedback about how new candidates work with others from a position of authority.

In addition to education and certification, top level leadership experience is a must, as well as years spent in the classroom. No candidate who does not meet minimum experience and education requirements should be advanced to the finalist stage, even if that means tossing the entire search and starting from scratch.

Easy is the district's first Black superintendent, and the first Black leader perhaps ever in Wayland. He was subject to public racist taunting and has filed a discrimination complaint against the district and key officials. Do you think there's a problem with racism in Wayland schools, and if so, what would you do about it?

Patrick Tutwiler was Principal of Wayland High School and an early leader of color in our district. He is now Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Wayland has a proven track record of accepting and embracing a leader of color in the past.

Racism has no place in our community or our schools. We need to continue to actively pursue anti-racist initiatives and an equity agenda. This is more important than ever right now, as many have been left hurt and confused by the past two years, especially our students and families of color. We have an obligation to work towards proactive equity measures, and to prioritize funding what we can when requests are brought to us by HRDEI or from our district equity coordinator. Sometimes these requests are seen as “nice to have’s” when in reality, we should be bumping some of that to a higher priority level.

After speaking with members of the community, I’d also like to see us move forward on some initiatives such as clarifying the process for reporting, investigating, and responding to harassment or discrimination for staff and for students, supporting adding Diwali as a school holiday when it falls on a weekday, and soliciting input and feedback to better comply with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act to include in FY2025 Capital Budget due in September. Finally, I’d love for us to collaborate with the METCO director to create a Boston-Wayland METCO Advisory Board, which we have not had since 2019.

Wayland has also seen other top administrative leaders exit in recent months. How would you handle replacing those positions as a school committee member?

As a secondary school administrator, I have hired teachers and administrators. As a Vice President at Northeastern University, I have hired academic leaders. I’m the only candidate who has hired educational leaders.

I have also co-authored the book "Leader Development Deconstructed" which is used by the U.S. Navy in their leadership programs.

We need to retain the jewels in our crown. The leaders we have in town, in our schools, can help us grow and develop our schools. We have the opportunity to promote from within, which provides us leaders who know, love, and appreciate our community.

Underlying all of this is the importance of open communication, collaborative decision making, and always keeping the conversation open. The more we can communicate and understand each other, the better we will be, together!

As far as academics, what's one thing Wayland Public Schools is doing well, and what's one area where it needs improvement?

Academically, Wayland does so many things well. We need to continue to develop curriculum and teachers so that we deliver on the best education in the commonwealth. We need to invest in early childhood intervention so that students can grow, develop, and learn in the best environment possible. We need to ensure that our discourse is direct, respectful, civil, and brings us together. For more about me and my positions, please go to www.gruberforwayland.org. We need to come together to move Wayland forward. Thank you so much for considering me for Wayland School Committee!