In 2023, Nelly Medina Seeks New District E Schools Seat: Q&A

WORCESTER, MA — In 2023, Worcester voters will elect school committee members in an entirely new fashion, picking representatives from new districts across the city along with a slate of at-large members.

The new election system is the result of a settlement of a lawsuit filed against Worcester in 2021 by a coalition led by the Worcester NAACP over the city's all at-large school committee. Electing members at-large led to a school committee comprised of mostly white members who didn't represent the diversity of the second-largest school system in Massachusetts, the lawsuit said.

After the settlement, election expert portioned Worcester into six school committee district lettered A to F, plus four at-large seats. The new system will create a larger school committee, and one whose members will at least be the most geographically diverse in modern times.

Worcester parent and community organizer Nelly Medina is running for the new District E seat in 2023. The seat covers all of southern Worcester from near Granite Street west to Coes Reservoir. Medina is running against Kathi Roy, another first-time school committee candidate, for the seat.

Worcester Patch asked Medina to respond to a questionnaire to help inform voters on a host of school issues ahead of Election Day. Here's how she responded:

What Motivated you to run for Worcester School Committee this year?

I decided to run to represent District E on the Worcester School Committee because I believe my experiences as the parent of a current Worcester Public Schools student and as a community and education activist and organizer will enable me to best represent the concerns of District E residents.

As the mother of a special needs student attending Worcester Public Schools, I know the difficulties and frustrations that parents and caregivers can face when interacting with an opaque system that lacks the resources to be responsive. As a community and education activist and organizer, from the Parents Union of Massachusetts and the Worcester Education Justice Alliance to working as the ARPA implementation organizer for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, I have seen how systemic issues become personal for students, families, and staff alike.

I have also been inspired by the strength and resilience of students, teachers, nurses, education support professionals, and families I have met along the way, and the shared core desires they have expressed. We all want safe schools capable of addressing the diverse needs of our students, we want our students to be challenged and to achieve academically, we want skilled and fairly compensated staff, we want school buildings that nurture our children rather than ones that are falling apart around them. We have made progress, but we also have much further to go. I believe that we can get there if we organize and advocate together.

This is the first school committee election under the new district system, and four of the new district seats are uncontested. Do you think the voting public knows that the system has changed, and if not, what role does the school committee play in spreading awareness?

Unfortunately, I believe there is still a lack of awareness regarding the new district system. Many of the conversations I have with voters begin with answering questions regarding the new districts and how they came about. I do not think this lack of awareness and engagement is unique to the school committee changes. In general, the City of Worcester does a poor job engaging residents in local issues and convincing them that their votes matter, which is reflected in our low turnout in elections.

I believe it is incumbent upon all those who hold elected office to actively engage with the communities they represent, both to educate and spread awareness about issues as well as to learn what issues their communities face so that they can proactively address them. This is what I have done throughout my career as an advocate and organizer, and it is what I will continue to do as District E representative.

Worcester is now home to the first charter school to open in Massachusetts in five years, and the current school committee opposed the opening of the Worcester Cultural Academy. What’s your stance on charter schools in general and this one specifically?

I vocally opposed the opening of Worcester Cultural Academy, as did the school committee, Superintendent Monárrez, and the city council, unanimously. Funding for charter schools would be better spent on all of our students rather than for a select few, and for the benefit of our community rather than the economic benefit of Old Sturbridge Village or any other private entity. And when they fail, as the Spirit of Knowledge Charter school did in 2013, it is our traditional public schools that are forced to shoulder the burden.

While we do face challenges in our public schools, we are capable of addressing them as long as we have the will to take informed and inventive approaches to them. Charter schools have an inconsistent and unreliable record at best of delivering improved educational outcomes to students. However, they have a very consistent record of undermining organized labor and privatizing a vital, treasured public good.

The Worcester Diocese has implemented a new policy in its local schools that many have called anti-LGBTQ+, and there’s been a larger movement across the nation to ban lessons and books in schools dealing with sex and gender issues. How do you feel about these issues?

I am against the policy of the Worcester Diocese. Regarding lesson and book bans, I am opposed to all attempts to transform our public institutions, whether libraries or schools, into vehicles for institutionalized bigotry and bullying. These bans are not good faith attempts to guarantee age appropriateness of materials, which is something we already do as a matter of basic policymaking and curricula design. Rather, they are targeted efforts to make our LGBTQ+ community feel unsafe, as if they have to hide, and unworthy of the acknowledgement we grant to all other groups which make up our society. This is unconscionable and I will always oppose this. LGBTQ+ students and families must be represented in our lessons and books as all members of our wonderful, diverse Worcester community must be.

If you could pick anything, what goals would you set for Superintendent Rachel Monárrez in the coming school committee term?

I support the goals that have already been established and approved, from improving academic achievement to increasing staff diversity. I look forward to working with Dr. Monárrez, who has prioritized showing up and meeting stakeholders. This has been a welcome change. A goal I would set is that this engagement should be meaningful. When stakeholders including students,
education professionals, and parents like myself are surveyed and asked to give input, we should have an expectation that our responses are considered and given weight in the development of policy, planning of curricula, and decision-making.

Worcester will soon open the new Doherty High School, but many other buildings in the district need repair or replacement. How should the district prioritize these projects?

In the short term, we must prioritize our limited resources towards schools where building deterioration and outdated building design present risks to student and faculty health and the maintenance of a productive learning environment. By these standards, Burncoat Middle and High School and Worcester East Middle School are clear priorities.

But we should not lose sight of the fact that these issues have long been overlooked and students, families, and faculty reporting them have had to fight too hard to be heard. The Columbus Park Preparatory Academy community, for example, had to agitate for years regarding their suspicions that the building was affecting their health only to be ignored until the state validated their concerns by finding accumulations of CO2 throughout the building that exceeded public health guidelines.

In the medium and long term, although Worcester has been particularly neglectful of its school buildings, we have to be aware this is an issue across the state and country and it requires responses at those levels to be addressed adequately. As District E representative, I will actively lobby state and federal legislators to provide increased funding for school repairs and construction, and encourage my constituents to do this as well.

The Worcester School Committee has started a review of the district's cell phone policy. What would you want that policy to look like?

The policy I would want is one that takes into account the needs and perspectives of teachers, students, and caregivers and one that is informed by the experiences of other districts as well as the viewpoints of experts and advocates. The process of the review has to take place for this to become clear. I am entering that process with the understanding that cell phones can be vital accessibility aids for some students. We must prepare our students to deal with the rest of their lives where cell phones and their potential for distraction are always present, but their potential to be used productively is there as well. I do also appreciate that this potential for distraction is real, and that the presence of phones in classes could create added burden for educators trying to engage our students. And as a parent, I want to make sure that my child can access his phone in case of an emergency.

Read previous 2023 Worcester School Committee candidate profiles:

• Maureen Binienda, At-Large
• Jermaine Johnson, District F
• Jermoh Kamara, District C
• Sue Mailman, At-Large
• Tracy Novick, At-Large
• Laura Clancey, At-Large
• Molly McCullough, District A